In Camera

Years ago, in post-World War II France, existentialist playwright Jean Paul Sartre shook the intellectual world with his play called "Huis clos". About a decade ago, I was given the daunting task of teaching this masterpiece to a mini group of very intellectually alert students of 'Diplôme Supérieur' - a course that I was then teaching at the Alliance Française de Kolkata. I did teach the course to the best of my ability after painstakingly researching everything there was to research about it and its author.But I continued to be intrigued by the fact that the title of the book somehow became "In Camera" (a legal term, meaning a discussion behind closed doors) in its American version, I could never figure out why this name haunted me and disturbed me profoundly . In the over-anxious effort of doing my 'job' well (and this continues to be an ongoing obsession) I missed out one vital thing : I did not relate it to life and therefore did not quite understand then, the implications of the  American name "In Camera".

The plot of the play , in brief, is a depiction of the afterlife in which three deceased characters, Garcin, Inès and Estelle,  are punished by being locked into a room together for eternity. These three damned souls are thrown together in a supposed 'hell' and each is in denial of ever having committed a crime. They had all expected medieval torture devices to punish them for eternity, but instead find a plain room furnished in Second French Empire style. None of them will admit the reason for their damnation: Garcin says that he was executed for being a pacifist, while Estelle insists that a mistake has been made. Inès, however, demands that they all stop lying to themselves and confess to their crimes. She refuses to believe that they all ended up in the room by accident and soon realizes that they have been placed together to make each other miserable. [Plot synopsis: courtesy Wikipedia]

Then Life happened to me as it does to some people. I say some people, and not everybody, for a reason. In my view most people go through life as if on a journey, collecting tags on the suitcase [name, education, profession, marital status, accomplishment and so on] on the way. Very few, the 'some people' I referred to, are the chosen few who look behind the curtains into the dark room to come face to face with the horrors that you do not want to acknowledge even exist. The agony of looking deep into the abyss happens due to what I now call perspective, for want of a more appropriate word. This agony, as I now figure, was the central theme of Sartre's play "In Camera" that deluded me in my youth.

Perspective is defined as a mental view or outlook. Your perspective is influenced by so much and luckily is not set in stone. Your life experiences, your learning journey, the people you meet, culture, geographic location and the language you speak contribute to your current perspective. It's like looking through a lens, that of a camera, the one that is in your hands as a composite factor of all of these experiences that have shaped your perspective.

My own perspective  was predetermined by world history as well as my family’s personal history. It has been molded since then by living amongst different communities,  speaking four languages and by traveling to the extent that I did. As you go through life, you begin to have a worldview. You mistake your version of reality for THE version of reality. Each of us has a biased worldview because we are all limited to a single camera perspective. That is we can only see what comes before us, we can only hear what is around us, and we can only read that which is in front of us. No one has the definitive version of reality. The clash of perspectives happens when there are "others" participating in the same situations that you are a part of.

I look at people and am reminded of the metaphor of an iceberg in relationship to culture. Only 10% of their cultural being is visible to me above the water surface. The way they dress, the way they speak, their food they eat, games they play, their literature, traditions and celebrations. 90% of who they are is below the surface: the concept of time, their relationship to death, their rules of conduct, personal space, tolerance of physical pain, roles in relationship to age, class, sex and kinship. People and cultures that are so different from my own have taught me, if anything, to know that nothing is set in stone. Any “truth” you hold dear, opinion, conviction which is shared with everyone around you in your geographic location can make you an instant outsider when in another place or simply among a different group of people. 

                                                                 


If, on the other hand, you put culture aside, and think only in terms of the 'being', even then every other 'being' is an outsider looking at you through the lens of her/his camera and therefore silently judging you or compelling you to judge yourself. This silent game of guilt, judgement, punishment and retribution goes on relentlessly. As humans we are social beings, but as Sartre showed more than half a century ago, as long as we remain "In Camera" there is no need to be banished to a geography called 'hell', we are carrying our 'hell' around us, right in the here and now. Incidentally the other versions of Sartre's masterpiece have also been called No Exit  and Dead End.

What's for dinner?

It was  8.30 p.m. in the evening and my husband had come to pick me up from office. He had taken an early evening off, been home to freshen up, taken our daughter out for ice-cream. Then the two were there for me at the appointed time.

So far so good...

The moment I entered the car the first question hurled at me was, "Ma, what's for dinner?” by my daughter, of course, and I also caught a glimpse of my husband's head tilting expectantly towards me. I had had an especially strenuous day at work and my instant reaction was irritation at having no answer ready for that question and yet being compelled to answer it. I charged back asking why I was being asked that question even though her 'Dad' had been home before me and had had time to plan something, which of course he hadn't. She was genuinely surprised at my reaction, and simply said, “because we always ask you." I was ashamed of my behavior, but too stressed to apologize. An awkward silence prevailed after that, to be dispelled by my husband proposing that we eat out.

If you come to think of it, this is one of those questions that many women have been answering across cultures and across generations. They have never wondered as to why they have to have an answer. Perhaps it is only of late that some of us have begun to question the legitimacy of that question as we have gone out of our hearths and carved our own niches in the world outside as professionals in different fields. We have begun asking why, the man of the house seldom, if ever, has to worry about planning and executing meals, let alone having to answer that question.

It would be presumptuous to assume that all men enjoy this ‘peripheral status’ where decision-making rights regarding planning and executing meals is concerned although I am pretty sure most do. What about women? Do women resent the fact that they have to answer the ‘what’s for dinner’ question almost every day? Again it would be presumptuous to assume so. Would I cause outrage if I said that women on the one hand enjoy having the exclusive rights to answer that question, and on the other hand, fake resentment to use for their feminist agendas as and when it suits them? There is a poll alongside this article to gauge the most probable answer to that quesion.

I, for one, love the feeling of being cared for if I am reassured by my partner that dinner would be his responsibility on a certain hectic day. I am blissful at the thought of returning to a warm meal that I have neither had to plan, nor execute. BUT, this positive feeling turns into one of  threat if it continues for as short a period as three consecutive evenings. Understandably, the male in the equation cannot fathom this! He exclaims “You women… are a mystery”

What is this power-equation that women associate with the whole food affair? Where does it come from? What is its history?

Talking about history, I am reminded about a scene in a popular Hindi film released last year apparently based on the story of Emperor Akbar and his favorite queen Jodha. When challenged by a certain senior member of her in-law family about her place in the royal kitchen, the newly wedded queen takes a stand by stating that it is the prerogative of every married woman (“har vivahit stree ka adhikar hai yeh”).
At this point in the movie, I could see that the director had touched a chord in the heart of the vast majority of the women in the audience. What I was horrified at was the fact that I found myself reacting in almost the same way as all the other women, i.e., agreeing tacitly to that claim of prerogative. Why should such a prerogative matter to me, an educated woman of the twenty-first century who has discovered other playing fields?!

The answer probably is that when poised against the collective history of a society, of civilization, the journey of the individual pales into insignificance. One stimulus is all that is required for you to plug into the persona of the archetypal woman who feels empowered by virtue of the sway she holds in the kitchen.

If I look back at my own history, I am reminded of a small but significant incident. It was my first visit to my then would-be in-laws’. The day was that of 'Saraswati puja’. A short while after the first awkward moments of preliminary introductions, my boyfriend’s mother offered to let me help with the cooking. I was thrilled and touched to the core by her generosity and inclusiveness! She asked me if I could knead the dough for puris. I of course said an instantaneous yes and plunged in headlong, silk sari et al, into an extra-large casserole of flour. Being motherless from a young age, I was over anxious to prove my skills that I had learnt on my own. But sometimes proving that you have skills can be a BIG MISTAKE. That one incident revealed to her my weakness. In later years, whenever she wanted to reward me she gave me access to the kitchen, and withheld that access whenever I was refusing to tow the line.

The point I am trying to make is this: the reconciliation between being accomplished in your professional life and holding on to age-old fears and archetypes, has to begin at some point. It has to happen out of willingness, not coercion. So, to all the ladies, answer these ‘why’s in your minds:

      Why, despite our qualifications and accolades, do we try to prove that we can cook and house-keep well?

      Why do we so often utter the sentence ‘get out of my kitchen’ when the men venture in?

      Why do we feel threatened when they are equally capable of planning and executing meals/ organising events?

      Why do we like being called "Minister of Home Affairs" or “Supreme Court”?

      Why do we women cry ourselves hoarse about gender-equality in workplaces while at the same time holding on to our so called ‘prerogatives’ at home?

      Why do we then resent it if they feel threatened by our skills and competences at the work place?

Turnabout is fair-play, don't you think ladies, and wouldn't you like that gentlemen?

How many of you think that women need to let go of their own insecurities first before they can expect the men to follow suit?  Cast your vote, we will know.

RESULTS OF THE POLL: -
-What is a woman likely to feel if she is not consulted in planning a dinner being hosted on an important occasion? [ Thrilled-0%, Relieved-20%, Angry-60%,Slighted-20%]
-Are girls and boys groomed differently by parents according to accepted societal norms?
[No-0%, Yes, but only in India-0%, Yes-40%, Maybe, but not in my household-60%]
-Does a woman resent better house-keepimg skills from the spouse?
[Most definitely-0%, Probably-20%, Depends on which generation she belongs to-40%, Not at all-40%]
-How often does a man deliberately let a woman feel in control at home to maintain peace?
[Always-0%, Sometimes-40%, Most of the time-60%, Never-0%]

A warm 'thank you' to all those who cast their votes.

Bend your Body! Don't crack your Mind!

I have always been, and still am, all for working relentlessly for a fab body (read, the best that your body can be), it pains me, however, to see how social media today is inundated with trends that promote harmful body stereotypes, from the ridiculous 'thigh gap' to the ‘bellybutton challenge'. The point of a challenge is to help you push your boundaries that much more so as to keep you motivated to do something that is in your best interest. These challenges seem to be doing the opposite. 

While on the one hand, people from different backgrounds and ethnicities are taking to the Internet to spread the message of accepting one’s body and loving oneself, it seems like all of those efforts are being rubbished, just by a couple of images that are setting the ‘trend’ for an ideal body.

The 'bellybutton challenge' made people twist their bodies, not for yoga, but to pose for the camera and show off their extremely thin waist-line. The 'thigh gap' is that apparently alluring feminine trait of having visible space between your inner thighs if you are standing with your feet together. These trends got their share of brunt too, but the magnitude of those who participated in such challenges is disturbingly large.

It’s becoming an obsession to have a particular kind of a body. Every month or so, magazines like Cosmopolitan come up with fad articles on topics related to that perfect female body, the lure of a man! You hear how a model got her ribs removed, as she wanted a slim waist. Younger women, especially the vulnerable groups like 'the teens' should be explained that these fads promote eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, they should be periodically counseled by mothers and teachers to make them understand that genes also play an important role. Somewhere down the line, everything has a counter-effect.

Recently, the ‘ab crack’ has become the new fad. It is a vertical dent outlining the ab muscles which is a result of extreme workouts. The unhealthy aspect of body-sculpting fads such as this one is that they can, and do very often, stem from the need to "prove" oneself on social media rather than making it relevant to actually living your life in an optimum condition of mental and physical health.

Following celebrities doesn’t help either; Girls/ women get pressurized to alter themselves in order to look a certain way. Everyone has a different body type and it is impossible to achieve someone else’s body as your own. Trying to do that may lead to women taking extreme measures: modifying one's body to a level that it may end up hurting is just not worth it. I think this really goes back to self acceptance and being confident about yourself. So what if you don’t have an ab crack from working out? Contouring can do the trick instead! If following a fad becomes the norm,  people may get bullied and it may lead to depression and other complications. Also, extreme insecurities may force people into eating disorders,  these viral trends are only going to make matters worse.

Having said that, it must also be said, that hate it or love it, it is almost impossible to ignore the Social Media. Rather, we could and should strive for physical inclusion through this media, we must make people with all kinds of body types feel included in society. Women from across the country, in fact from across the globe, can come forward (and often do) on Social Media to talk about the effect of these trends and how we can counter them.

I would welcome such a discussion on this forum, right here, if you feel like adding your comments or having your say. Also, if you think that the awareness to steer clear of such negative trends needs to be spread, please feel free to share this piece.

Thank you!

The New India! Of wifeless MBAs, cows and cow-dung!

Some say we are lucky to be living in these times.

Opportunities for earning a good living and creating a 'good life' are in abundance and within reach of most; national boundaries are relaxing; time is steadily being saved by everything being delivered at your doorstep by online shops; the individual can breathe easy as society is not peeping through the keyhole as much as it used to; people are experiencing the euphoria of being always 'connected' via WhatsApp, not to forget the frenzy of attention from social media platforms like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and so on in competition/ collaboration with dating apps such as Tinder & TM etc. Life couldn't get any better, especially for the generations in their 20s and the 30s. 

So far so good, but we need to halt right there. 

Some fundamental things still remain the same as in an earlier times, one of them being that youth is characterized by the hormonal havoc that we commonly call 'love'. Once you have taken care of the basic mundane material needs of life, you're somehow still missing that one thing that (you believe) is to be found by sharing your life with someone, not in the virtual world, but for 'real'. The media too is overly focused on this cocaine called love; it's everywhere: on TV, on FM radio, on the internet. You cannot turn a fraction of a degree without being assaulted by this notion that romantic love is 'must have thing' in your life. It is therefore but natural to turn your attention towards dating with the express intention of finding a partner, either for a short-term relationship or a long-term one culminating in marriage. So starts the dating ritual of getting introduced to someone either online or offline.

This is what was the crux of a conversation I recently had with a young acquaintance of mine, a 38 year old MBA, doing well in his Marketing career and still deluded by love. Let's call him 'Karthik', to give his incognito face a name in this piece. Although I was with him to discuss a business deal, I noticed that Karthik was very frequently referring to how he was "happy being single". I figured he just needed that little nudge to tell me what it was that he was facing in his near-obvious search for finding a partner. He opened up soon enough to reveal how he had been "unlucky" in love, how all his classmates, batch mates at the various institutions he had attended were almost all married and settled in life. Of course, he added the disclaimer that many of them were also separated/ divorced, and that in each of these cases he had already foreseen it as 'inevitable'.

 This intrigued me and I wanted to know what the 'inevitability factor' was. In his opinion, it has become increasingly difficult for men especially in his social milieu to find a woman to marry and possibly even more difficult to stay married. 
-"But why?", I asked. 
-"Because...", he said, "just like us (guys), girls are also getting educated and their focus, motivation, priorities are all rapidly changing. They want a career and money much more than wanting to find a guy to love and to marry."

As a career-focused woman myself, I couldn't help but agree. However, I tried telling him that all was not lost, surely at some stage even the financially independent woman would want to set up a love-nest. He seemed to disagree and in the next hour or so painted this picture of a "monster"-woman who thinks no end of herself just because she is earning a few bucks.
-"What exactly do you mean?" I asked, bemused. 
-"You see...", he continued, "She would come and go as she would please, wouldn't want to take any responsibility of cooking and running the house, much less of kids. etc". 
-"Well, in that case, you could be the one taking on these roles perhaps?" I suggested

-"Yes, of course", he quipped, "I am an independent man, so much so, that even if there is complete darkness in my room and I walk in...", (I gulped) "I would know exactly where to find my shirt, and inner wear and socks", (sigh of relief from me). "But why should I do all this for her?" he added. He continued, -"Moreover, if she is a working woman, earning her own money, she would obviously want to spend some on her parents. And if my money is being used for our joint expenses, why would I not have the privilege of calling the shots, you tell me...".  

I was aghast at this stage and decided in my mind that I was face to face with an MCP, who was an exception and that all guys were not like him. He however, was on a trip, and was unstoppable:
-"I also wouldn't like it if she were independent while gong to work, but suddenly became dependent on me to drive her to the beauty salon over the weekend."

I lost the will to argue or even to continue this conversation. My mind was dwelling on whether this was the kind of guy my daughter would end up meeting. Somehow managing to camouflage my ire, I suggested why not he go for a girl who hadn't opted for higher education and career and whose mind was relatively "un-corrupted" by all these ideas of Women's Lib, and who would be there for him waiting with a hot meal when he got home after saving the world with his marketing 'gyan'. He said he had not only given it a thought but had also gone "to see" a few such girls in and around his village in Uttar Pradesh as arranged by his mother. Some of them even had a dowry "ready", befitting his stature as the son of a UP bureaucrat and an MBA from XIMB to boot! 

By this time, my anger had subsided to be replaced by a laughter that was so hearty and deep that my stomach was hurting.
-"So then, what happened to the deal?" I barely managed to hide my sarcasm.
-"No yaar, not possible", he continued, dejected, "I can't marry such a girl".
-"And why not?" My curiosity got the better of me.
-"Because she wouldn't be presentable at office parties, she wouldn't be able to speak fluently (in English) on any topic. Her parents also know that. That's why they have kept the dowry ready for a city-based guy like me"
-"So then, an educated but not so ambitious girl is who you are looking for, am I right?" I asked, trying hard to appear genuinely interested.
-He gave it some thought, and then continued, "Maybe... but she wouldn't like my family in the village. We have cows at home, and sometimes there is a stench of cow-dung." 

I could no longer hold it in. I guffawed in my full-throttled laughter and even Karthik's indignant face could not deter me. 

Needless to say, the story of Karthik's epic search for a girl to marry remained inconclusive. But it does point towards a gap in demand and supply (pardon me for using the terminology, for want of a more apt expression, in the context of human beings) of marriageable girls in India. 

Let us avoid the pitfall of being facile and attributing this very simplistically to the modern Indian male's inability to handle the modern Indian emancipated female. It runs much deeper than that. If we have been paying any attention to census and other reports we would see where the hapless fate of guys like Karthik stems from. There are NO GIRLS TO MARRY. Our previous generations have done too good a job of killing them! So much so that there are supposedly 43 million more men in India than women*, accounting for a whopping 76% of the total male surplus in the world. Even if some eligible Indian men were to find foreign girls to marry, many would still remain wifeless since, as rightly pointed out by Karthik, many of the eligible Indian young ladies would "... want a career and money much more than wanting to find a guy to love and to marry." 

Coming back full circle, maybe all is not perfect in modern India. We are living through times that are a strange combination of equal opportunities but also of gaping chasms left behind by mindless ravages by an unthinking/ selfish generation - that of our parents and grand-parents.


Yes, I know. It is sacrilege to say such things out loud about our revered elders. But, face it, you too need someone like me to say it as it is. That's why the Karthiks among you choose my shoulder to cry on.

*Reference: WORLD SEX MAP by David BAUER 

The slow but steady reverse brain-drain.. Did we see this coming?

Of late, there has been a fare amount of focus on the reduction in volumes of approval of the H1B visas that enable less expensive skilled Indian labor to replace the local workforce in the US. My post here today aims to focus on another trend that is not much talked about but is steadily growing nonetheless.

Recently a colleague-friend of mine went to Paris on a brief vacation. As expected, she found the onward flight pretty scantily populated, given the recent spate of events. However, what surprised her was the fact that the return flight was full, but not full of Indians returning to India but French nationals and other Europeans coming to India on work, to Delhi and onward from there to various Indian cities. She herself is a US citizen, working alongside me in Hyderabad, India. There are six others like her in my team alone, all French-speaking US or Canadian citizens.

This is a relatively recent trend, that began quite imperceptibly somewhere around 2005-2006, of India being looked upon as a coveted destination by job-seekers, not only from developing countries like Cameroon, Benin etc., but also from countries of the so-called developed first world like the UK, the US and Canada. This new wave is made up mostly of well-educated migrants from wealthier, more developed countries, leaving behind slow-sluggish economies in search of job prospects and opportunities they can’t find at home.

For the last year or so the surge in numbers (more than doubled I have been told) has been quite phenomenal in the number of visas granted to Americans to work in India and this does not include special visas given to Americans of Indian origin who enjoy the OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) in any case. Even in countries like China, Korea and Singapore, there have been significant increases in the number of visas being approved for working in India. 

Traditionally, India has exported software engineers to the US and other western countries. So what is the demographic of this influx of expats into India? They are coming mainly to work in creative fields like advertising, journalism and in specialized professional services like legal services etc. Some expats are even looking at India as a destination for setting up their own businesses. This especially says a lot about the 'ease of doing business' factor that is the result of more than a decade of liberalization of the Indian economy.

On the bright side, we need not really wonder to figure out the reason behind this sudden spate of interest in India as a work destination, need we? India's steady growth story has been pretty much consistently been in the news for the last three quarters at least. It was not the least bit surprising that the Indian Stock Markets showed resilience in the face of the Greek Crisis or even the Chines stocks falling like nine-pins in July-Aug 2015. The GDP growth in India at present is nearly 7.4% year on year in the quarter ending September. These figures were better than market expectations. The rise in the growth rate suggests the growth of the economy. The financial policies and the monetary policies are able to sustain a stable growth rate.

These figures, statistics, data, forecast etc. are in the domain of the Ministry of Finance and the Gurus of Market Analysis. The common man, however, hardly ever cares about data, rather he goes by his perception about what's happening in the world around him. What changes popular perception is media and social media, where the tempo was set already for this in mid-2014 when the Indian Parliament saw the first majority government taking oath for the first time in three decades. The India of "too many poor people and too much corruption" suddenly had a strong charismatic leader. In subsequent months, there was steady focus on marketing of brand-India, what with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speeches at the Sydney Stadium and the Madison Square reinvigorating many non-residents so much so that they declared on live television that they wanted to come back to India saying that they no longer feared being unemployed in their own country.

We all know that all is far from perfect, the road to 'real' development is still ahead and has many impediments. However, certain ground realities are undeniably good. We finally have roads that we can really drive in. The modern 4-laned highways have made inter-city commuting quite hassle-free. At least within its gated communities and swanky malls, India has become quite clean. Money or employment is seldom the problem for the urban middle class at least, compared to the dark eras in the '80s or '90s. We have modern, organized retail come in. The likes of Landmark, Lifestyle, Future Bazaar have brought modern practices in retail and allowed for more job opportunities for the middle class. Economically upwardly mobile Indians are no more enamored by things that are merely foreign. Our attitude towards the world is evolving to become more confident and more mature now.

The corollary to this improved 'self-image' of India is the new spate of expats flocking to India seeking employment and an opportunity to explore 'the new world'. The future is here they are saying among themselves. A relatively better pay package than one hopes to land back at home, better standards of living  at lower costs (including easy availability of domestic help for cooking, cleaning, etc), are factors that whet the appetite for "trying out India" as a work destination. Not to forget that India has always been seen (and will continue to be seen) as the land where unbridled materialism or mindless consumerism have not really cast the same grim shadow that it has over Western countries. 

Oddly enough, not all but quite a few of these expats come with a heavy head on their shoulders as if still carrying the 'White Man's Burden' of having to civilize the 'uncivilized' until of course their burden is somewhat lightened by the likes of me (the author of this piece) who gently but unmistakably remind them, if required of course, that this is the 'new world' where the old equations have become defunct. A few of them are also remarkable people, realistic and humble, ready to learn as much as to share. 

Slowly but steadily the immigrants are creating or finding their comfort niches even in the India of heat and dust. Over-populated, chaotic cities like Mumbai and Hyderabad have rooftop hookah clubs where the expats regularly haunt to chill out, or stores like Q-Mart where they can buy their cheeses, quinoa, and couscous. The sensible ones quickly learn to invest in attire suitable to India thereby avoiding attracting undue attention to themselves when out on Indian roads. Quick on the trails of this trend, fashion brands like Global Desi and Akriti have customized their products lines for this new niche segment with a relatively fatter wallet  [http://krittika-retail-enterprises.shopclues.com/]

We Indians are ever ready to play the hospitable host and I wouldn't like to spoil the pretty picture, nor sound like a naysayer, but history has made us wary of foreigners coming to India with apparently innocent, innocuous reasons. It wouldn't be a bad idea for Indian education sectors to re-look at their curricula to see where the deficit is being created in training Indians to become adept in the fields where the expats are coming in to fill in a gap in locally available resource, or, even for parents to wake up to the fact that 'science' and 'math' may no longer be their ticket to prosperity.

[Browse: Kraftee @ http://krittika-retail-enterprises.shopclues.com/ ]

The easiest thing to do in India!

The easiest thing to do in India is TO GET MARRIED.

You want a house on rent?! Way too difficult.
You want to enroll for a good course at a premier institute?! Breaking news! You're unlikely to get past the doors, 'coz there's reservation for the backward!
You want a job?! That's tough bro! Ain't nobody tell you before?!
You have a job, but you'd like to save some money?! Nahh! You're not in luck, 'coz you're gonna be taxed heavily for committing the crime of working hard.
You have the zeal of an entrepreneur?! Forget it! The licence dept. will screw you so bad, you'll be zeal-less in no time.
You want to make movie or write a book?! You won't find a producer or publisher,

But fret not my friend: You can get MARRIED!
-No qualifications? No problem. Somebody will MARRY you.
-No job, no income? No worries! Somebody will still MARRY you and even arrange for the finances
-You think you're not much of a looker? Silly! Somebody thinks you're a Greek god or goddess as long as you talk MARRIAGE.
-No house to live in?! Get MARRIED and voila! Renting a place is super easy!
-Are you still in two minds?! Thinking if Hrithik/ Suzanne, Konkona/ Ranvir didn't last, what are your chances?! Be positive! If the first time doesn't last, you can get MARIED again, and yet again...
-About that start-up, movie or book idea, just make sure it has the word MARRIAGE in it somewhere. And the millionaire club is waiting to welcome you.

In India, the easiest thing to do is TO GET MARRIED! And it's a sacred duty that you owe to your ancestors.

P.S. - If you're a foreigner reading this post, and finding it difficult to tie the knot in your country, all you need to do is to buy a ticket and fly out to India!! Somebody is waiting to MARRY you. And guess what?! You can do it in the Maharaja style!