R-Indi-culous Stats

It might come as no surprise to you that India is the Outsourcing capital of the world.. for now that is. But what about chest-thumping about the "India Shining"? Indians are the most prosperous of all immigrants in the US, 50% of doctors in US are Indians, 75% of Silicon valley is owned by Indians, 36% of NASA scientists are Indians..! The list goes on.. and you have to be a no-brainer to believe it all, because as it happens, all of these are hoaxes circulating on the Internet.

But what happens when news outlets actually peddle this sleazy stuff? Well, that is exactly what happened today.
Check here..!

I do not by any sense of imagination want to belittle the achievements of immigrants in this country. Being one of them for now, who arrived on these shores with a few dollars in my pocket, I have seen and participated in the tireless work of our people in uplifting both them and this counrty to great paths of prosperity.
However, what I do take objection is to see all this in the narrow prism of our national identity and then the inevitable chest thumping that accompanies in the media outlets. For some reason, eulogies by Western nations and nationals seem more important to us than the adolation of our own people. Is it because we are so stingy in that adolation except when it comes to Bollywood and Cricket? How many of us actually commend the life's work of an NGO who worked to save AIDs patients or orphans and destitutes? Infact, many of us know the City of Joy because of Dominique Lapierre. I wonder how many would be enlightened about the lepers of Kolkatta if a Bengali Chattopadhyay had worked in the ashrams for their emancipation, there instead of a pale complexioned Albanian nun?

We pride ourself by writing self eulogies about our "imaginary compatriots" who slave in foreign lands. So, is it a coincidence that the "elite media houses" land with mud on their faces when covering about the 10 year old who was "invited to NASA" to perform research on the Mars Mission?