In the not too distant past, the worry was, India was losing all the best brains of the country to the West. All the top Indian doctors and engineers headed West to find their fortune, never to return to the place of their birth. It was an accepted fact and the exodus was colossal, with the country losing all its talent, big time. Those countries offered great jobs, a superb infrastructure, the quality of life was far superior, everything was rosier out there and so people left to live out their dreams. Today, there is a definite reverse trend happening and not only are highly educated Indians coming back home to India, they are returning and voluntarily giving up the ‘good life’ they found there. Instead, they have returned to live their dream, of giving back to the country of their birth. It is a passion that drives them, otherwise what could explain their burning desire to give of their time and energy to the country that nurtured them?   

"I think it's important for people to come back home to their roots. I needed to come back, so that my country can benefit from what I have learned," said Dinesh Katru one of the hundreds of young software engineers who came back from California. “ I did originally leave India because I could not bear the corruption and pollution here, but I am coming back to help control it. We have to change our mindset and realise this is our country and we must use our education to help ourselves and not someone else and some other country.”

Old school memories

Boys of all sizes and shapes whizzed around the corridors of St Joseph’s Boys’ High School as I chatted with Rajesh Kheny in his office in the new school building. Rajesh did his Electrical Engineering from MS Ramaiah and left for the US on a scholarship to do a dual masters in Electrical Engineering and an MBA in the ‘1990s. He was hired by A T & T Bell Labs and climbed the corporate ladder finally working on Under Sea communication Systems. In 2003, he made an impromptu decision to come back to Bangalore with his wife and children. “Once we returned, I visited St. Joseph’s, my old school, and met Fr Michael John the principal. I felt the school lacked a counsellor to help the ICSE and ISC boys in the field of personality development, time management, leadership, team management and sex education. So I put together a programme and in June 2003, began the first one. It was a great success, as the 16-18 age group is the age group I can best connect with. I am a friend of the boys and yet perform the task of being a mentor to them. The teachers are viewed in a parental role, but I am treated differently and that’s exhilarating for me. My door is always left open to them and they know that I am here to chat and clear things with them at any time. I also help them to plan a resume and we have mock interviews to help them handle interviews in later life competently. I also get evaluation of teachers from the students, so I can work with the staff to enable them to teach at optimum levels, helping both sides to work in harmony.”
That’s an amazing step in the right direction, considering we in India have an education system, which just talks down to the student and the concept of interaction never existed.    

Building castles

Bhagya Rangachar, a couple of years ago, was better known only as the sister of Captain Gopinath of Deccan Aviation Systems, who had come home to India after having spent decades in the US. “ I did not plan on coming back,” explains Bhagya, “ I got married when I was 18 and went away in the 1960s to the US. There, I did a degree in Computer Science in Maryland and lived in the US for close to 30 years with my family. In ’97 a window opened allowing me to come home for a year and I brought my youngest daughter Radhika with me. I stayed in an apartment that I rented in Basavanagudi and there I saw the construction workers’ children, attending a makeshift school. One day I went along with them to the school they attended. There I saw kids of security guards, flower sellers, servants and construction workers attending a sort of school. “

“The year 1997 was when the boom was happening in Bangalore, there was money everywhere and yet these kids had nothing. By the sixth grade most of them were pulled out of school by their parents to work and earn to support the family. There was a stirring inside me to do something, but what? I was clear I wanted to start a support system for these kids, not a school. I was determined not to start anything which I would dump in a year when I return to the US. That is more cruel than leaving them where they are. “

“As you can see, I never returned and the programme took on a life of its own and evolved to what it is today. I signed a MOU with the department of education and began with a couple of trustees. Today the institution that I run called Love Castles Trust (CLT) in Jakkur is a set up to strengthen the already existing educational system, for children in underserved communities. I set up the CLT after school learning centre and the children come after school, to enjoy a self directed learning experience . I have mentors or facilitators, so the children do not feel they are back in school. The children do projects on flash animation and corporates help me by sending their executives to do community service. They then match grants with the number of hours logged in which helps fund CLT.”

Walk into Bhagya’s institution and you will be swamped by the energy of the village kids, who enjoy every minute of their time spent there, in surroundings which can match the best facilities in the city.

Bridging gaps

Meet Rajeev Gowda, who has been recently promoted to full professorship in the prestigious IIM Bangalore. In the early 1980s, Rajeev passed out of St. Joseph’s College with a gold medal in Political Science and a scholarship to Foldham University in New York city. He spent almost 17 years in the US but “having come from a family of freedom fighters my political aspirations have always been uppermost in my mind. Bangalore is no more the sleepy town I left in the 80s. The whole world is coming here and the entrepreneurial energy in the air is palpable,” said Rajeev. He has begun an NGO called Resurgent India which is focused on developing the youth of the city. “We facilitate bridging the gap between what is taught in school and what is needed outside in the real world. We have held career guidance courses and leadership training camps for the children. We want to unleash the potential of our Indian youth who lack the confidence to make them leaders. We are working to bridge the divide between different segments of society. Bangalore has always been a city focused on just two careers – engineering and medicine. We want the youth of the city to open up beyond this blinkered view and follow their passion. That’s what we are building in Resurgent India.”

Teaching teachers

And then there’s Shuchi Grover who went off to the US after a double degree in Physics and Computer Science in BITS Pilani in the 90s. She and husband Shivram Venkatasubramaniam rode the dotcom boom in 96 and sold Catapult Technology, a company they founded in 2000, in the US. “We had always planned on coming back to India, so when our company was acquired, we both went on to do further degrees. I did a Masters in Harvard with a specialization in Technology and Innovation inEducation. Initially I helped in an International school here, where I taught teachers that technology was not just an add on, but a way to transfer the teaching and learning process for a more meaningful education experience. I teach teachers how to leverage technology to enable them to aid the learning process. Mallaya Aditi International and Rishi Valley are some of the schools I have worked with. I have been able to expose these teachers to technology which they definitely have not experienced before.” Check out http://educatorslog.in for details on Shuchi.

“ Anyone can write out a big cheque and ward off their guilt feelings about helping the country. Not me, I give of my time which is far more valuable,” reveals Rajesh. And it’s notable that Bhagya, Rajeev, Shuchi and Rajesh are not retirees. Far from it — all the above Bangalore Boomers are young, with younger families, which also require their time and energy. With their hands on approach, one can see they are far more effective than the big charitable institutions that we all support in different ways.