Being dumb is a privilege

My friend made an argument that Indias are so much smarter and hard-working than Americans.

At that time, I took offense because I was with Christoph and admired his intelligence and work ethic of Americans. Working in the industry with all white and multi-cultured people. I also felt a little responsible for my own career trajectory, I worked hard and learned new things and created apps and contributed to office. The missing piece with me was the experience of working in Indian offices, and how hard working are Indians. Being an Indian and growing up in India, I had an idea of how hard-working everyone is, really hardworking, day in and day out, example my parents and brother and students. So I went into thinking mode, after I got over my ego/ anger/ shock. I remembered, my dad asking Sanjay the same question, what's the difference between working in India vs America - he answer was quality of work. When I ask my women friends - Komal, Tasleem and Eshanee, their answer is toxic work culture, longer working hours, no respect for person for their labor or employees as humans. When I asked Rasika what made her start her journey to America and her answer was - there is no growth. She could not crack the MBA exam to get into a good college. During my first semester in America for my Masters, I was asking my friends this question - why America? All these resources, syllabus and jobs are also available in India. Nobody had an answer, some were also wondering the same, many people were rich in India too and were struggling to leave that comfort behind here in US (my friend Suraj) and were wanting to go back. Who encouraged them to come to America and why - their cousins, including my own brother, and why? For better opportunities and wages. I had never earned a single rupee in my life by that time and didn't realize the importance of these values, so I believed that it must be true. At that time, I believed only 1 person - Yatin. He said, if you are building a house in India or hire a contractor to do some work for your home, it is not gonna be straight forward, there will be commissions, scams, and quality will be compromised, you will ultimately end up spending way too much money for the product you got. The reason why this answer convinced me or satisfied my question at that time was because this example was an example from my own life and was kind of eye-opening to see a label for that experience.

When my parents moved to a 2 bedroom apartment from 1 bedroom apartment, they made some renovations, painting and closet space since it was a second-hand apartment and not a brand new one. My mom had an idea of what kind of a place she wanted, what colors she wanted the walls to be, how she wanted her clothes to be organized, mirror, dressing table, kitchen organizers and feel at home. The contractor hired some laborers and made some changes, and he screwed up the color of the walls because he thought it would look nice and mom asked him to revert it. My dad was always on top of things. After that, he made really low quality furniture and poorly designed, bed frame, wardrobe and dressing table. Kitchen was a disaster - poor quality racks and the design was all steel with big racks, instead of smaller racks. Mom and I were most disappointed, mom learned to forgive and forget and live with it. I couldn't. I felt we were wronged in so many ways.

I accepted that I want to continue living in America, learn the culture, meet expectations, deliver, and produce from the best of my abilities.

After 6 years, when Rasika gave a statement that Indians are more hard-working than Americans, and I didn't have an answer that time. I think I have an answer now. Human will work hard towards their own goal, make a living and try to earn a stable income to the best of their abilities. Both Indians and Americans work equally hard, there is no one person who is more hard-working than the other when we compare nationals.

Ambedkar has written that - a person cannot be productive if they are anxious or hungry or not able to trust other people and thereby a country cannot be productive if it's people are not productive. Thanks to Ambedkar's writings, I am getting guidance in my today's life, 70 years later too, when I am 30 years old, not even young.

A human should not be measured based on any hierarchy, but only based on their contribution to the society. How is being dumb looked down upon. I noticed that there was some kind of confidence when Rasika said that Indian's are better than Americans and better here meaning smarter and hard-working, my brother also believes that, and I also believed it, but since living in America for 6 years, I got drawn to understanding that Americans are better since they know more than me about the Engineering field and business field and that's why I believed they are better.

They are better in valuing human beings, and have reached here after lots of resistance and calling out.

So yes, Indians are smarter and hardworking, but lack in human values imbibed by brahmanical patriarchy.