Undercurrents #4: Meet the parents

4.30pm, 27th February, Café Coffee Day, Juhu
In person conversation

Ashmita: “I was at an interview recently and I was the odd one out in the reception area. Everyone else had come with one of their parents”

Me: “What, how come?”

Ashmita: “I think its because for some people they won’t have travelled alone to a new city before. They’re worried about their kids”

Me: “Oh my god, I wouldn’t let my parents near anything like that”

Ashmita: “I know right, but I felt I was missing a vital accessory!”

Me: “Shesh. Is that normal then?”

Ashimta: “Not everywhere, but for some yes. It’s going to take another generation until attitudes really change. In my family too. Even though I’ve lived and studied abroad for years, now I’ve moved back to India and I’m living alone my parents are really paranoid & are trying to check up on me all the time.”

end

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Cultural Undercurrents
What might this story tells us about the invisible forces at play in society?

-High expectations are placed on graduates leaving education and entering the job market.

-There is an assumption that this ‘youth demographic bulge’ India is experiencing will positively contribute to the economic growth of the country. But and there is now huge supply of graduates in India and not the same supply of highly skilled jobs to match.
-Migration isn’t anything new in India. But the predominant migration pattern is for people to shift across small distances with 60% of internal migration within the same district, and 20% within the same state. Are more and more educated young people are choosing to move away from the where they grew up and their family homes in search of work, shifting across state borders to further away towns and cities and altering the lifestyle patterns of previous generations.
-There’s a still largely held perception that travel across the country is unsafe, especially for solo female travellers. It is unusual for Indian women to travel alone over long distances. My limited experience of travelling alone on long distance trains and domestic planes however has been very positive.
-I assumed the bring you parents to interviews is a uniquely Indian phenomena — and then I read a Wall Street Journal Article about American companies including Google and LinkedIn have started hosting “Bring your parents to work” days.