So, how is life in India?

Its been a while since I sent an update blog mail. Of course, I may have sent some of you a quick update on Cabot based on your interest and profession, but I also owe a more general update on life after moving back to India and I had a note to self that I will do so at least once every month or every two months. So here is the latest edition of news from India 

Patrick can breathe easy now, I have gotten my container full of Cargo in the first week of June and everything made it safe across the Atlantic. The clearing process for the Cargo was not so straight forward, as half of the time, I had no clue what was going on. I still don’t know why it took seven days after the ship arrived for my container to be de-stuffed and for me to clear the cargo. The clearing agent was a good friend and so I did not have to worry about getting cheated by them or others. On the day of clearing, the agent was running from pillar to post, to arrange customs inspection, pay the taxes etc. Folks doing the inspection have no regard or respect for the contents in the boxes and they just rip apart the boxes in an effort to quickly go through the contents and make a list. I had to constantly remind them to be gentle with the cargo, at least on the monitors and the TV. Also thanks to the Customs connections, I did not have to pay heavy duties on any of the imported items. So life began to take a normal shape soon after I got the cargo unloaded at the house and started setting things up. Veda and Sruthi also enjoyed seeing many of their toys after a good gap of three months and had a play riot for the next two days. In the process of getting the cargo cleared, I also managed to make some contacts at the Port of Kochi and I hope to use them for a greater cause J

The documents or lack thereof, is creating big problems for me in certain cases. I do not have a permanent address proof in Kochi as I am just renting a place here, my passport is Canadian and does not have an Indian address, I am not registered to vote here and hence no ID card etc. In short, I don’t have an acceptable document that can serve as an address proof and that is standing between me and my driving license (at least until I have taken the driving test, I am blaming the lack of license on the address proof J ) I am trying an alternate route this week to get the license, I shall keep folks posted on the progress J

Veda is doing great at the school. She really enjoys learning Hindi and also the variety that is offered to her everyday. Even for grade 1 here, she has about 7 subjects and a different teacher for each one of them. She has a time table and every hour there is a change of teacher. Starting this week, they have reduced the hours by one hour and she is now at school from 7:45 AM to 1:30 PM. She likes the short version as well.  She has made some friends in school and talks Malayalam with them as well J She has proved to be toughie in this move and the prize for the best acclimatization would go to her in our family, without any second thoughts.  Sruthi is doing fine too, just not embracing all things around her with the same vigor as Veda, that’s all. She does like the temples, the flowers and other sights. She is not too fond of her day care, but that is only in the past week and I am sure she will get used to things fast.

Cabot is doing wonderfully well in the last 2 months. We are well on our way in the expansion plan and have already added to our staff and in the process of adding more. We might have some exciting news about a new premises to share with you all soon. Fingers crossed right now. Our clientele in North America in general and Halifax, in particular, is growing. We are adding to our Flash expertise, our PHP team and developing a niche team for Drupal. On our industry focus, it seems to be the time for real estate as the demand from agents and companies to build custom websites and databases seems to be on the rise.

I did see my first movie after returning to India, Terminator Salvation. Well, we didn’t have a choice as that was the only Hollywood film playing in Kochi last weekend and being a Sunday, we couldn’t get any tickets for the local films. So that was two hours very badly wasted J We also got our small fish pond ready last week and we now have three gold fishes swimming in it. The tin foil barbs did not survive the first night, not sure what happened, but I had to do a mass burial on day one itself, that was sad.

So that’s it for this edition. As John Joseph commented on my FB status last week, I seem to enjoy the life here after moving back so far and that is a true statement. Of course, there are challenges, like the non-existence of Stella Artois, but life still goes on and I am not complaining 

Please do stay in touch and drop a note as and when time permits !

Back to India – 3 – TiE Kerala event, First day of School and the cyclical TIME

Last three weeks presented me with a lot of different challenges and learning opportunities. While I have become quite adept at driving the car here, I cannot say the same about dealing with public and private offices here. On many occassions, I have been presented with options that are totally illogical like the bank blocking my credit card application because I was not using the right sales represntative! But overall, life has been good so far and the expatriate re-entry factor is not that high and I see that coming down fast.

I attended my first networking event here at the TiE Kerala dinner event. Even though the topic of the speech was not appealing to me, I still attended the event to get into the groove of things here and with the hope of meeting a few fellow entrepreneurs. The speech topic was Raising funds in the International markets and the event was supposed to start at 6:30 or so. By the time we walked in at 7, people were still standing outside the hall and chatting. Luckily the meeting started in a few minutes. The first thing I noticed was the lack of the fairer sex in the meeting. There were a total of two ladies and one of them was the presenter and the other one was the wife of the outgoing president.

The hall soon filled up and we must have had close to 60 folks in attendance. I was in for a surprise as Ms.Roshini Paulose (Pole Star Advisors Pte Ltd, Singapore) started her presentation and gave a good overview of the subject. She had an excellent command of the subject and her London School of Business experience showed in both her language and her knowledge. After about 40 minutes of presentation, she opened the floor for questions and here again, was another surprise for me. Audience had brought real life working questions and it was a very interactive session. I walked in not expecting much and this was a great session.

The presentation was followed by a bit of networking and the bar was opened. At first, I only noticed a scotch (could not depict the brand, a local product I assumed), there was no wine or beer, though at the end I saw couple kingfishers floating around. One thing I was impressed about was the fact that they did not require any registration and it was only done at the door and managed the food buffet pretty well.

Another major event in the last few days has been the first day of school for my daughter Veda. The excitement surrounding the first day took me back almost two decades The frenzy was still the same, getting the books, bags and above all, getting the school uniform stitched ! I too did the same thing as many parents and made the last minute tailor shop trip on Sunday night to get the uniform for Monday morning. Nothing beats the JIT methodology for uniforms!

Veda was pretty excited for the first day, even though she had no clue how different this school was from the one in Canada. The noticeable thing on the first day was not the school but the traffic approaching the school. The entire street looked like a giant parking lot and even walking to the school was very difficult (oh, there are no sidewalks by the way).  We walked in to the school and found out that Veda was in division B of the 1st Standard. After we went to the class and Veda found a spot, a teacher came to the class. Almost all the parents mobbed her to get information about the timings, scheduling, books and a lot of other details. It made me wonder why they never thought of putting this information in a booklet or even just a notice and pass it to the parents before the school even opened ! But other than that, it was just another regular day and Veda was satisfied with the class and now in her fourth day of school, she is still excited in the morning to go to school. Wheww, that was a big relief to Vani and I.

Professionally, in the last little while, I am trying to deal with the concept of ‘cyclical’ time. I remember taking HR classes for my MBA at SMU that spoke about the cyclical time and the challenges. Having not spent too much working hours in India, I did not realize the impact of this probem until now when I am managing the firm and meeting other folks. Time is thought of as a commodity that is infinite and is available in abundance. Meetings start late as a rule. Even folks who come for interviews are either way too early ( I had someone show up an hour early sometime back) or late. Even casual coffee commitments are late !! And the funny thing, it is well tolerated and accepted ! I have already given my take on the issue to the team at Cabot and I am hoping to change the trend somewhat here, at least within our working environment.

Well, there is lot more coming in the next few weeks…Kevin Schwenker is visiting from Halifax next week and I am looking forward to seeing him here and hopefully before the next blog, I would have moved in to my new house

Cheers….VT

‘Cabot Trail’ in Munnar !

'Cabot Trail'?

I am not sure if the road to Munnar can be compared to the famous North American Shore drive, Cabot Trail, but this past weekend, there was surely some Cabot in the air at Munnar where our team headed out for a fun team building trip. The trip has been long in the planning and the last delay is attributed to me and the team waited patiently for me to join the organization and then go on the trip.

There was only one objective for the trip, to take a break from the digital world of bits and bytes and to take in some nature and recharge our batteries. Of course, that and much more was achieved in the trip, keeping in line with the Cabot tradition of delivering beyond the expectations J

It was a pleasant surprise when our bus actually left the office at 7:10 AM. We were only delayed by 10 minutes from our planned departure of 7! Whoever said that Indian Standard Time is always two hours late, obviously didn’t know Jithin, our coordinator who was rumoured to be on the phone almost entire night making sure none of the passengers overslept and delayed the trip !

The first item on the agenda was, like any other bus trip, stop and get some lemons and sick bags. Even though I took a lemon in my hand, I did not have to use the sick bag.

Jithin started off the proceedings with an ‘introductory’ game.  Team members were divided into groups of two and the first member had to introduce the second member and vice versa.  Of course, we all knew what each other did at work etc, so the catch was to introduce the team mate with some information that was not public knowledge. It was a fun game and we all came to know about the many different phone calls received by the folks and lots of guess work about who the caller might be. Even though the game had the potential  for doing some real damage, everyone kept a cool demeanor and maintained professional standards and no names were revealed J

Followed by the game was a song written and composed by the ‘light and sound’ of Cabot, Jinsy. Modelled after the famous Malayalam boat race song ‘ Kuttanaadan punjayille… ‘ Jinsy’s version dealt with all employees of Cabot and their roles. Great work Jinsy ! I am yet to get  a copy of that song and perhaps one day it can be published in our blog !

By that time, we had exhausted all our energies and we stopped to get some breakfast. By looking at the busy restaurant, we could already imagine the crowd that would be waiting for us at the top of the mountain. I guess we were lucky to get some breakfast as I could see the restaurant turning some people down as we were leaving the place to continue our trip.

Second half of our trip was Anthaakshari time, the popular movie song game where teams sing songs that start with the last letter of the song that the other team sings. There were two teams and after a good one hour of singing, there were no winners or losers and by that time we were close to Munnar.

Our first destination was Mattupetty, some 12 kms from Munnar. So we went right through Munnar and proceeded to Mattupetty. Of course, we stopped enroute to catch a glimpse of the tea estates and taste some mangoes.

 Jinsy and Geethu managed to get a horse ride in as well, even though their original plan of both of them riding in a single horse didn’t work out so well as they planned.

We walked along the Mattupetty dam and enjoyed the cool breeze from the lake beneath. All the boys were fascinated by the gun wielding little boy who challenged them to get four out of five shots for a petty gift of a ragged doll. Bananth was unanimously voted to be our first volunteer because of his one time attempt to become a police officer. Of course, he proved why he didn’t become one as all five of his shots missed not just the balloons but the entire stand J Mejat wanted to show how it was done and if I recollect correctly he was close to a balloon or two, but he did not break anything, at least not the balloons that he was supposed to anyway. Shibu showed some courage and took the gun next and with some luck, managed to hit a balloon in his first shot! The next four shots are nothing to write about. All along this, our fearless leader Naveen was commenting on how one should allow for the wind speed and direction and shoot accordingly etc. He was the next one to take the gun and he must have made some terrible miscalculations with the wind speed because no balloons were popped! Varghese chettan showed off some of his old school training by hitting three balloons in his five shots and received great cheers !

It was getting late for our lunch appointment at Munnar and we decided to make it a short visit of Mattupetty and get back to Munnar for lunch. But there was a problem. All along the mattupetty dam were street vendors selling bracelets, hats, make up stuff etc and our female co-workers found some solace in them since they didn’t participate in the violent balloon shooting incidents. When we sent Jithin to distract them and get them on to the bus, he too joined them and helped them get more dust collectors for their houses !

Lunch at Munnar Inn was good and there were lots of happy faces after the lunch. It was close to 4 PM by the time lunch was over and we could not get into the Rajamalai forest as it was closed at that time. So our trip back home started and we decided to play some dumb charades to keep ourselves from dozing off. It was then that we realized that we are all lucky to have day jobs other than acting! Memorable acting was presented by Mejat who ran inside the bus for almost a km and his team had no clue what he was trying to say ! Of course, he was trying to say ‘Sammanam’ (gift or trophy) that one would get when they win a running race ! Well, at least he is looking fit on the Monday !

We all had a great time and everyone enjoyed the trip. I personally learned a lot about the Cabot family. It would be remiss to end the blog without thanking Jithin who worked very hard to coordinate and execute this wonderful trip! Thanks Jithin !

Back to India – 1

Its been three weeks since we have landed in India and two weeks since I started my new role as the CEO of Cabot Solutions. I thought I would give an update on how things are progressing for us as a family and for me, professionally and personally.

 In a nutshell, if you ask me today how things were, I would say they are fantastic ! We have had a very good initial transition, even though I am afraid the transition period is still in place and wont be over until we fully settle in at our house here in Kochi. We had shipped all our goods in a container from Halifax on March 20^th. It was expected that it would reach Kochi, India around the 1^st week of May. Due to shipping delays, it now wont get here until the 27^th of May. That has caused us a bit of grief, but in the big picture that is a small problem to have right now.

 Our trip itself was uneventful but pleasant. The connections were great and we did not spend any time idling around in airports. As a result, we were all in good shape and spirits when we landed in Kochi and that in turn, allowed me to do a quick run to the duty free shop at the Airport and get some of my favorite beverages.

 Weather here at this time of the year is not fit for welcoming somebody from Halifax. It is in the high 30s and humid. Air conditioning is the only savior and I sometimes get a chill just thinking about the power bill that I will have to pay at the end of the month. Kids are putting up a brave front and adjusting themselves very well. Their diet is still a bit messy as they find some of their favorite food items missing from the menu here. But overall, they are doing an excellent job drinking and eating. As I was mentioning to Vani, I don’t think I have seen Veda this excited for such a long period of time in a stretch. She is amused by anything and everything around her. The temples, roads, cars, other kids…etc, you name it, she has a comment or two about things around her. Sruthi is a bit more bugged by the heat this time than her previous visits and has no idea how to tackle that. Even though she walks around with a water/juice bottle around, she is still a bit dehydrated and is sleeping more than usual. Vani is playing the anchor role to a perfection and she is making sure the kiddos are doing well and happy all the time. She has her hands full throughout the day and night. Nap time is her favorite part of the day, but Veda doesn’t like taking naps anymore and she also doesn’t want Sruthi to take one.

 We have made one trip to our home town. Trivandrum. It was a short trip of 4 days but still packed with events. My mother turned 70 in April and we had a small celebration for that. My nephew turned one, also in April and we celebrated his birthday with great pomp as well.

 By far, I am having the most fun J I have a new job where I have lots to contribute and lots more to learn. I am also learning driving a car in this mayhem of Indian roads and traffic. Currently, I drive a two wheeler to work and it is fun. I too am not a big fan of the heat and I am finding comfort in the air conditioners, wherever I can find them. The lunch options are very exciting and I am having fun exploring the different restaurants in the office neighborhood. Management and HR issues here are different from the ones that I have encountered in North America, but nothing that good common sense and business knowledge cannot overcome. I am trying to introduce some best practices for project management, delivery and general employee benefits in my first month here.

 I haven’t had a chance to take a lot of pictures with my camera. I have taken couple of shots with my phone camera. The first one here is a picture taken from my car. It is the picture of a family riding in a scooter. The scooter is meant for two riders and as you can see in the picture, there are four people in this one. The second picture is that on an elephant in our neighborhood temple. I shall send more pictures as they become available.

 

Please do stay in touch and stay tuned for the next edition of Back to India…..

 

Back to India – 2

I know, I know, the Back to India – 1 wasn’t a blog post It was just an email to friends, but then I left out many folks in the email and started getting complaints So, here is a new way to address that problem, this is the second installment of the update, hopefully not nearly as long as the first one but with some meat to it.

First off, I will try to address some questions from the first post and the picture of the scooter with 4 people riding on it. By law, only the driver of a two wheeler needs a helmet, which is why the passengers (women and children in the picture) are not wearing any helmet. I remember the days when I was riding a bike to my college and the government was trying to enforce the helmet law and it was pure mayhem. People came up with all kinds of excuses not to wear helmets. Surprisingly now, I see that almost all two wheeler drivers have helmets. I am also hoping that it is not due to the fear of law, but from their own safety awareness that people are wearing helmets. If that is the case, then soon the government would be able to enforce a helmet rule for the passengers as well. I mean, they are equally (if not more) at risk as the driver !

Yesterday, May 7th, was a ‘hartal’ day in Kochi and in most parts of Kerala. Hartal is a form of public protest against a government ruling or a policy. It is usually called upon by a major political party (mostly the opposition since the ruling party cannot object to its own policies !!) and followers cooperate by closing their stores and offices. The issue at hand this time around was not a very sensitive issue and the hartal was peaceful. Most offices (including Cabot) was open and private vehicles were allowed on the roads. Most restaurants were closed and it dampened our coffee break in the morning and made our evening coffee break a very expensive one because we walked into a five start hotel to grab a coffee. Of course, the ambience was very good there and Shibu and I had a corporate ad hoc planning session that lasted about an hour.

Today, Veda had her interview at the school. I am not sure what to make out of it. Kids who ‘passed’ the entrance test on April 22nd were asked to be present for the interview. There were a total of 15 kids. I believe about 45 of them took the test. Veda was the third child to be called in for interview. We went into the Principal’s office. My good morning was met with a stare. We took our seats, even though we weren’t asked to, not sure if that was disrespectful in the Indian standards ! The vice principal was also there for the interview. Veda was asked two questions, what is your name and which school did you go to and she answered both of them. I was asked why I chose to come back to India and even though I was a bit taken aback by the question, I answered it with sincerity. And that was the end of it. We were asked to present the papers at the office and remit the fees. Now I am not sure if the recommendations that Veda received were so high that the interview was just a farce or if it is just a regular affair. The two folks who were ahead of us also seem to get the same nod and they were also in the office to remit the fees and stuff. I was told only 9 kids would get in at grade 1 in that school this year. Everyone there seemed to have some kind of ‘connection’ to the school, so I am wondering who were the 6 kids that were turned back at this young age? Even though Vani was present with me at the time of interview, the Principal didnt seem to notice her at all. We were never asked if we had any questions or anything else to share etc. I have heard good remarks about that school from friends of mine and my sister is a teacher there, but after today’s interview session I am not sure about the general qualities that Veda will learn from this school. Like I mentioned to Shibu after the interview, we may have to start our own school. Of course, that is after we start our own Bank, Pharmacy and Hospital ! LOL

Until next time….VT

Amir disappoints

Inspired by the movies this week blog, I decided to watch Amir last night. As a disclaimer may be I should say that my mindset was perhaps not the same as the previous night when I was watching A Wednesday, but still Amir disappointed me to a large extent. I could not connect with the protagonist, who looked like a model right out of a suiting ad and sleep walked through the movie. The villain made him walk, run, taxi through entire Mumbai and there was not one iota of tiredness visible in his face.

It was a different movie, I do agree to that. And the story line was also good. There was good camera work capturing the life of Mumbaiites, especially the climax bus scene was very good. But the message of the movie got lost in all this noise. So he takes the title of Terrorist willingly at the end? Is that the message? While A Wednesday  stressed the importance of not sharing a name in order to identify a religion, Amir relied on his name to convey the same message. It also seemed like there were a lot of people involved in the bombing plot. That would be unusual for an operation like this, I would assume. That is too many loose ends leaving trails.

All in all, I did not have the same satisfaction I had when I finished Wednesday. I might return to watch a malayalam movie tonight, lets wait and see.

Venkatesh

Movies of the week

I haven’t written a blog in almost an year and I was looking for a chance to do that. What is the easiest way to force a blog out of me? Of course, to write about movies. First, about the bad movie.

When you live in Halifax, you don’t get a lot of choice when it comes to Hindi movies. So Tom (my friend) and I make it a point to see the Hindi movies that get releases in theatres here. In that line of movies, we saw Guru, Om Shanti Om, Jodha Akbar etc and the going was good…well, until this week. This week’s new release was Drona. Need I say more? Even after repeated warning from other friends and well wishers (who took the time to read the reviews), Tom and I dashed off to see the night show. It kind of happened as an accident, because our annual Onam get together finished, just before 8 and the movie was on at 8. So, coming directly from an Onam get together, we were dressed in the traditional mundus . October in Nova Scotia is not the right time to be wearing a mundu. But anyway, we didnt care and off we went. I am not going to attempt a review of the movie itself. I will just say that it was one of the worst movies I have seen and I have seen a lot of bad movies . It lacked in all departments – Story, screenplay, editing, acting, music, graphics, art direction…I could go on and on. I was pushed back about 10 years in my life when I had stopped watching Hindi films.

And then, last night kids went to bed early and Vani and I didn’t want to do more work around the house. I looked at the movies I had with me that I haven’t seen yet and picked A Wednesday . The next 100 plus minutes I was rivetted to the TV. I was glad that I didn’t give up on Hindi films based on Drona experience. Wednesday was refreshing and challenging at the same time. Of course, the director cannot escape the preaching scene towards the climax. That needed to be there for the sake of completion. But the movie was full of power performances, Naseerudin Shah and Anupam Kher led the roles to perfection and all the supporting cast helped carry the tension forward. A very tight script was a major plus point. Even within the short time frame, the director did try to give each character some depth (the informer scene for Arif Khan, the wife and child on the phone for Jai etc). And it is a pity that these films don’t get the deserved credits at the box office. Wonder why !!

And perhaps tonight, I might be able to catch Aamir, another hindi films. I do have a dozen mallu films waiting, but the kinds of Madambi and Parunthu will never get their turn I suppose

If you happen to read this blog and have seen the movies mentioned in the blog, you get the prize of sending me a comment !

Venkatesh

Going Beyond Namaste, the cultural barriers

A Google search on ‘doing business with India’ will probably fetch thousands of articles and stories on what to do and what not to do when making a business trip to India. Personally, I think most of the tips mentioned in those articles are out dated now. Shaking hands with ladies or offering a glass of wine are no longer considered offensive in the new India. Besides most business people travelling there are already aware of such customs and traditions. But getting past the initial greetings and exchanges and getting down to business in India is still challenging because of the cultural factors (or the lack of awareness of those factors among people in North America). And it can be even harder when you are not directly selling or buying but trying to build a relationship with some key partners in the country.  Desire vs Commitment 

It is one thing to desire to do business with India and another thing to have a commitment to do business there. In order for a desire to become a commitment, the key people involved should try and understand the lay of the land in India, the people, the culture and the background of people in the industry that they are dealing with. It is not necessary to enjoy the food or Bollywood or learn the game of Cricket, but it is a must to learn the business values, the hierarchy and relationships between key players in the Indian market. And in order to fully understand the context of certain industries, it is inevitable to travel to India a few times before seeing any considerable development in a relationship. So all this points to the fact that one must essentially understand and embrace the Indian business culture to do successful business there. Probably the most important step in all this is realization that there is a cultural difference between the nations and it needs to be addressed.

So what are some of the highlights of Indian business culture?  The essence of business in India is the same as anywhere else, but what varies is the demarcation between personal issues and business issues. A cancelled business deal in the Indian context, is very much equivalent to a cancelled or broken relationship. An undelivered promise could be seen as a lack of trust and commitment. From a North American perspective, we need to understand these facets of Indian business before we enter into a relationship with Indian businesses. There needs to be some quality time spent upfront before beginning any business relation and the parties should lay down the ground rules before any commitments are made or transactions are made.

Communicate, Communicate and then Communicate some more

One might think that the topic of Communication has been done to death by all management gurus out there. While it is true that a lot has been said and written about the importance of communication, only portions of it has been carried through to most senior and mid level executives. And besides, the varied style of Indian and North American communication doesn’t make it any easier. When an executive from NA decides to ‘look into’ a matter, the Indian counterpart understands that an action has been initiated to do something. It is essential to break down all actions and commitments to the lowest level possible and have a written agenda between parties involved. While it may seem too cumbersome and repetitive in the beginning, it will save a lot of time and heartaches in the future. Any verbal commitments from one party should be put in words by the other party and communicated back to make sure all are on the same page. That way nobody will be seeking the status of a project that was never started in the first place!

Time

A business relationship with India is treated almost as closely as a personal relationship. So naturally it takes time to develop and flourish. Give it the time it needs. A long term vision and strategy are needed to pursue India as a target market. Short term gains will most likely be few and far between. And don’t be surprised if your partners in India also are seeking short term successes. Right now there is a rise in wealth creation in the country and sometimes traditional methods of doing business have to be parted with. But it is good to be prepared to stay in it for the longer term and get the most value out of a relationship than a short term gain.

In summary, these are the key points to remember :

• Ask yourself if you are committed to do business with India. Remember, it could be a long road before you see any results.
• Understand that there are cultural barriers and a need on both sides to learn each other’s methods
• Have a clear communication strategy
• Have a long term vision and goal.

Immigration to Nova Scotia

Yesterday, the province of Nova Scotia and the Federal government signed a new agreement relating to the Immigration / Nominee program. Under the new agreement, NS can nominate as much number of people as it wants for the Nominee program. It is indeed a good milestone, even though I cannot figure out why there was a limit in the first place. Certainly the expectation was not and is still not, that we will get tens of thousands of immigrants flooding Nova Scotia.  

This led me to the question, ‘What can we do to build a better community (ethnic) that will attract and retain more immigrants?’. From an initial thought process, the following points seem to be valid : 

-      Most immigrants, especially new comers, are very adjusting and flexible to their new environment. In most cases, they are aware that NS does not have a large Indian population before they even land here and their expectations are low. So they are not (in most cases) disappointed by that.

-          Their basic needs (some cultural exchange, food, entertainment etc) are met by the existing infrastructure.

-          Even though a more elaborate set up would be welcome (like a rec centre, more art and cultural programs, occasional movie screenings etc), it is not a deciding factor in many cases when immigrants chose Ontario or BC over NS.

-          So then, what keeps them here is solely their profitable employment. In 9 out of 10 cases, people who land here and leave the province do so for their jobs and careers.  

A lot of immigrants face tough challenges when it comes to the job market. I agree, a good portion of it is because challenges in communication, having the need to re-qualify in certain professions (doctors, engineers, dentists, other medical technicians), not having the required skills etc. But even with all the right sets of qualifications and possessing the skills that are in demand, many immigrants face an uphill battle when searching for a job in Nova Scotia. We can always be proud of our friendly and welcoming nature, but the reality is that the ‘friendly nature and welcoming attitude’ stops just short of getting someone employed.  

I can personally vouch for at least a dozen immigrant families who first landed in Nova Scotia and had to move on later to other provinces for lack of employment or career growth here. And at least for one of the families, I was instrumental in bringing them to Nova Scotia and it left a really bad taste in my mouth when they left for Toronto.   

So one might think, there are probably not enough job opportunities here. I would beg to differ. Opportunities do exist, but they are not for visible minorities or for people with a ‘different’ set of qualifications. We 

·         fail to recognize the importance of education and university degrees granted from foreign countries,

·         fail to accept the fact that sometimes things are done a bit differently outside Canada,

·         see humility as lack of confidence,

·         mistake respect for shyness,

·         see accent as a failure to communication 

and the list goes on. 

Who is to blame here? I personally know of situations where some immigrants would have been the ideal fit in many occasions. But sometimes the organizations or the hiring managers are not sensitized to the immigrant situation or their culture and thus the newcomer is seen as not qualified for the job.

Recently, a friend who took up a job in Halifax from Toronto quit the job and went back to Toronto. He is from the African American community and his comment after two months in Halifax was this, ” I do not see any leader in this organization (another major employer in town) from my background and I don’t think I will ever be given the opportunity to grow here “. That was an eye opening comment in many ways. We need to work on creating awareness about different cultures and backgrounds at a very senior level.  

May be it is time for us to look deeper into the issues of why immigrants leave Nova Scotia. May be it is not the case of not having a stronger ethnic community, because if that was the case, people wouldn’t come here in the first place. We need to create the opportunities for immigrants before they come here and I am sure we will have no issue attracting immigrants from any country in the world !

VT

The debate on Online Identity

Last week or the week before, Chronicle Herald was running a poll on if it is fair to check a person’s facebook identity (or any other social site, like Myspace or others) when they apply for a job. Here is a link to a story they published soon after the polls closed.

Like many people who responded to the paper’s question, I too believe that the identity you create online is nothing but you. So if you don’t want anyone to know that you are a fan of Paris Hilton or Jus.Timberlake, just don’t tell it to the whole wide world.

Apart from Facebook and mySpace, there are professional tools designed for you to maintain a resume online and create your own space. LinkedIn is one such tool. But if you create two personalities, a professional one for LinkedIn and a personal one for Facebook and they are sort of opposites of each other, you are in trouble.

Once you enrol in any social or professional networking site, it is hard to keep it under covers, that is if you actually want to use that site. I know some friends who have facebook or orkut profiles, but when you visit their page on these sites all you see is a question mark and perhaps the name of the person. There must be a reason (not known to me) why they are maintaining this page, perhaps for potential searchers or friends to find them online and send them an email or something??

 If there really is a wild side to you and you want to have fun with it online, sites such as SecondLife could provide some help I guess. Never having used that site, it is not possible or ethical to comment on its usefulness . I also know of some other folks who have a totally different identity online, just for fun. Just make sure a google search on your name does not bring up this identity on the first page of results (I have never gone beyond the first results page of Google, if it is not there in that page, then I have to refine my search terms is my rule ! ).

So Clooney, Timberlake and Ani, beware of your online personas 

 VT