Undeterred dream

Every now and then, there are reports of Indian students studying abroad being attacked or made a target of violence.

However, the fascination of studying in a foreign land is such that even these incidents have not been able to deter the students from going outside for higher education.

As Metrolife talks to some students, they opine that it is not appropriate to generalise the whole situation just because of a few attacks.

Amit Bhatia, a research associate at Indian Institute of Technology, feels that half of such attacks are by criminals and can happen anywhere in the world.  Amit is preparing for Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), a test required for getting into the educational programs in the United States and other English-speaking countries.

“When there was a spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia, my parents started discouraging me from going out of the country for studies. They are still concerned and don’t want me to go but I think people are the same everywhere,” says Amit.

An LLB student, Guramandeep Singh thinks that such incidents will not occur if you stay with other students from your country in unity and mind your own business. “Just because of one or two incidents, I can’t change my mind about what or where I want to study. These incidents can happen here in India also. So do we stop living here,” asks Guramandeep, who is preparing to go to Australia to pursue MBA.

Karan Kukreja, the owner of a coaching institute called Career Studio, says most students are not bothered by such incidents. “A majority of students are not affected by such incidents as they are determined about going abroad,” he says.

He also feels that one cannot deny the involvement of Indian students in provoking the attackers. “In all countries like the United States, Australia or the UK, there are students from various nations. But why is it that only Indian students are attacked? There may be a possibility that even the Indian students are equally responsible,” he says.

Those who have returned after studying abroad agree. Vineet Singh came back to India after completing an MBA programme in London. “The people over there are very humble there and we did not feel an iota of racism. But there were times when youngsters in groups would pass some unwanted comments to provoke us. So it was up to us to remain calm or indulge in violence,” shares Vineet.