Purpose of life

[wd40]

As Indians because we came from poverty, we didn't develop any interests. Until now, every action we took, we needed some monetary motivation. Like if sing, who will listen to me? Whether I can make a career out of it? If I take up cricket, will I be able to play well? Etc now you can detach the monetary motivation and do stuff for the real interest of it, without expecting any reward.

LOL wd40, there are 5.1 milion(51 lakh) Indian origin people living in US.
Members who login to forum on regular basis ~ 10. Members to this club in last 10 months <130. The old forum too never became lucrative because people who want to return to India are tiny and not because they are discouraged by naysayers!!
So based on this tiny tiny sample, you give a statement that we Indians don’t have passions outside money making?
Indians in bay area where I live have regular participation in running clubs, hiking clubs, singing clubs, book reading clubs, children play date clubs etc etc
I see lot of people engage in voluntary activities which I started too after my kids left for college.
I at 47 have plenty of life left and I live life like YOLO and I see similar minded people around me! Reason that binds me to India(hence this site) is my mom/sisters live there and I am a firm believer that whatever I am today is due to upbringing/values instilled by my Indian parents and sisters; I also belive that Janani Janmabhumishcha swargadapi gariyasi ("Mother and motherland are greater than Heaven.”)! If I return to India for retirement, I will be happy but if that doesn’t happen for whatever reason, that doesn’t stop me enjoying whatever I have today! I learnt this hard lesson after kids left for higher education and became occasional visitors!
I am writing this from a community club’s hall waiting for other volunteers to join with our weekend cleaning activity around lake.
In order to enjoy life, you need to find people with similar interests(and not statuses) and omit money from the equation.

I know some members from old forums(unfortunately they didn’t join here and don’t know why) are examples of Indians with passion in multiple fields. They were walking encyclopedia on sports (Tennis, NFL, NBA, Cricket etc) and taught at chinmyanand on Hindu epics, equally knowledgeable in books, Kannada/Hindi movies/songs etc, spoke 5 languages while being at high positions in companies they worked !

Well, glad to hear that. So Bay Area Indians are not only high achievers in making money but also have their lives sorted and dont have any midlife crisis nor get bored in retirement. You guys have achieved nirvana! Congrats!

[loyalindian]

@wd40,
I dont think that is what RBee is stating. Being in the US East Coast for a few decades, I concur with RBee that Indians have a lot of interests outside of money goals (Scotch Clubs, Hiking, Skiing, Books, Music, Volunteering etc.)
Several of my friends have gone through tough times - midnlife crises, divorces, break ups, special needs children, job losses etc.
I agree with you that for some of my friends, getting to a "magic" retirement or FIRE $$ number is on top of their minds (although they will admit that their personal goalpost keeps moving), however for others it is not.

[wd40]

@wd40,
I dont think that is what RBee is stating. Being in the US East Coast for a few decades, I concur with RBee that Indians have a lot of interests outside of money goals (Scotch Clubs, Hiking, Skiing, Books, Music, Volunteering etc.)
Several of my friends have gone through tough times - midnlife crises, divorces, break ups, special needs children, job losses etc.
I agree with you that for some of my friends, getting to a "magic" retirement or FIRE $$ number is on top of their minds (although they will admit that their personal goalpost keeps moving), however for others it is not.

I know what she is implying. But this is a very small set of cream of cream high achievers from India she is talking about right?

Who are the people from India who make it to the Bay Area or East Coast? You remember in you school, the guy who was good in studies, good in sports, good in speech, drama everything and everyone was jealous of them. All it is this group of very niche people from different parts of India who make it to Bay Area.

It is hardly a representation of the typical average Indian, out there who's parents kept telling them you are good for nothing, if you don't study, you be washing dishes in a restaurant. What kind of interest do you think such kids develop?

[desi4ever]

@wd40,
I dont think that is what RBee is stating. Being in the US East Coast for a few decades, I concur with RBee that Indians have a lot of interests outside of money goals (Scotch Clubs, Hiking, Skiing, Books, Music, Volunteering etc.)
Several of my friends have gone through tough times - midnlife crises, divorces, break ups, special needs children, job losses etc.
I agree with you that for some of my friends, getting to a "magic" retirement or FIRE $$ number is on top of their minds (although they will admit that their personal goalpost keeps moving), however for others it is not.

I know what she is implying. But this is a very small set of cream of cream high achievers from India she is talking about right?

Who are the people from India who make it to the Bay Area or East Coast? You remember in you school, the guy who was good in studies, good in sports, good in speech, drama everything and everyone was jealous of them. All it is this group of very niche people from different parts of India who make it to Bay Area.

It is hardly a representation of the typical average Indian, out there who's parents kept telling them you are good for nothing, if you don't study, you be washing dishes in a restaurant. What kind of interest do you think such kids develop?

I disagree with you. I will take my own example and in my sample data I know many "like me". In terms of talent , I'm you nothing extraordinary ( no IIT degree or FAANG job ). Simple desi middle class life that too in Texas. To give you a comparison, I'm not SAPPRO, Rbee , OS2, Cantor . These people are way above my league. I'm not trying to be humble or modest or looking down upon myself. I'm happy for who I am , my lifestyle and appreciate US more than before I came here . I could have never made it big in India ( think sr director, VP ) , but I can have a better middle class lifestyle here ( No please dont compare the convenience of maid, driver, eating pani puri or any street food ) with better education, clean air water etc. So for an average dude like me I'm in a much better shape in USA than I would if I were R2I. I did R2I in 2009 and my lifestyle got downgraded and savings depleted. No regrets though. So yeah, like Rbee says there is a very tiny %age of population that R2Is and most come back or shuttle between the 2 countries post retirement. But its possible to live comfortably in US without being Nadella or Pichai.

[SAPPORO]

@wd40,
I dont think that is what RBee is stating. Being in the US East Coast for a few decades, I concur with RBee that Indians have a lot of interests outside of money goals (Scotch Clubs, Hiking, Skiing, Books, Music, Volunteering etc.)
Several of my friends have gone through tough times - midnlife crises, divorces, break ups, special needs children, job losses etc.
I agree with you that for some of my friends, getting to a "magic" retirement or FIRE $$ number is on top of their minds (although they will admit that their personal goalpost keeps moving), however for others it is not.

I know what she is implying. But this is a very small set of cream of cream high achievers from India she is talking about right?

Who are the people from India who make it to the Bay Area or East Coast? You remember in you school, the guy who was good in studies, good in sports, good in speech, drama everything and everyone was jealous of them. All it is this group of very niche people from different parts of India who make it to Bay Area.

It is hardly a representation of the typical average Indian, out there who's parents kept telling them you are good for nothing, if you don't study, you be washing dishes in a restaurant. What kind of interest do you think such kids develop?

I disagree with you. I will take my own example and in my sample data I know many "like me". In terms of talent , I'm you nothing extraordinary ( no IIT degree or FAANG job ). Simple desi middle class life that too in Texas. To give you a comparison, I'm not SAPPRO, Rbee , OS2, Cantor . These people are way above my league. I'm not trying to be humble or modest or looking down upon myself. I'm happy for who I am , my lifestyle and appreciate US more than before I came here . I could have never made it big in India ( think sr director, VP ) , but I can have a better middle class lifestyle here ( No please dont compare the convenience of maid, driver, eating pani puri or any street food ) with better education, clean air water etc. So for an average dude like me I'm in a much better shape in USA than I would if I were R2I. I did R2I in 2009 and my lifestyle got downgraded and savings depleted. No regrets though. So yeah, like Rbee says there is a very tiny %age of population that R2Is and most come back or shuttle between the 2 countries post retirement. But its possible to live comfortably in US without being Nadella or Pichai.

I can't agree with you more except the out of my league part! It's very true especially for "90s kids" like us when India was mortgaging gold just to stay afloat.

[RBee]

Well, glad to hear that. So Bay Area Indians are not only high achievers in making money but also have their lives sorted and dont have any midlife crisis nor get bored in retirement. You guys have achieved nirvana! Congrats!

LOL, No Nirvana buddy. That’s not what my post tried to imply.

Bay area(Or any part of US) is box of chocolates. There are super high achievers who make 500K CTC within first 5 years of employment(Read BLIND app) and there are people like me who try to get CTC of such magnitude after 25 years of working. Oracle employees who work in bay area even struggle to make 250K after decade of working and they too are happy and do not have inferiority complex.

Indians I meet here, all do not work in FAANG or MAANG companies. There are a lot who came via Infosys, TCS and other service companies but then switched to American employers after they got sufficient knowledge in latest technologies.
They say that they were not high achievers in college and hence were picked by service companies during college recruitment as high rank holders/toppers were picked by product companies. Being topper in college is just 4 years and then we have decades of employment and if we are not constantly learning/upskilling, we would not have survived in industry for so long, so please pat yourself in back.

Your post implied that in order to have interest/passion in many fields, one needs to be born in rich families or be a very high achiever during college/employment or be retired like OS2ji in their 60s and majority of the people I interact do not meet any of these catagories.

Many join photography club while not knowing to differentiate between iPhone and SLR camera quality, many sing regularly using smule app (and they cannot take business of Shreya Ghoshal or Arijit Singh any time soon ) but they too engage in creative pursuits that interest them.

And why do you undersell yourself so much ? Sharing once or twice, you were an underachiever during college days is OK but even after earning crores, if you repeat, that will qualify as humble brag !!

[SAPPORO]

It seems like passion and hobby are being used interchangeably here.
You either have the passion or not and it does not depend on how much money you have, you follow it somehow like MSD, Sachin, Williams sisters, Tiger woods etc.,
OTOH, hobbies can be developed, and having extra disposable cash helps.

[desi4ever]

It seems like passion and hobby are being used interchangeably here.
You either have the passion or not and it does not depend on how much money you have, you follow it somehow like MSD, Sachin, Williams sisters, Tiger woods etc.,
OTOH, hobbies can be developed, and having extra disposable cash helps.

I need passion and money to develop new hobbies

[nodegree]

All these passion/hobby stuff is overrated and yet another way to status climb for the hierarchy conscious. That's my hot take.

[SemiRetire]

I disagree with you. I will take my own example and in my sample data I know many "like me". In terms of talent , I'm you nothing extraordinary ( no IIT degree or FAANG job ). Simple desi middle class life that too in Texas. To give you a comparison, I'm not SAPPRO, Rbee , OS2, Cantor . These people are way above my league. I'm not trying to be humble or modest or looking down upon myself. I'm happy for who I am , my lifestyle and appreciate US more than before I came here . I could have never made it big in India ( think sr director, VP ) , but I can have a better middle class lifestyle here ( No please dont compare the convenience of maid, driver, eating pani puri or any street food ) with better education, clean air water etc. So for an average dude like me I'm in a much better shape in USA than I would if I were R2I. I did R2I in 2009 and my lifestyle got downgraded and savings depleted. No regrets though. So yeah, like Rbee says there is a very tiny %age of population that R2Is and most come back or shuttle between the 2 countries post retirement. But its possible to live comfortably in US without being Nadella or Pichai.

I agree with this. I am not smart or intelligent enough like many others in this form. To be specific, I met personally Lakshya and Sappro and they are walking encyclopedia on most of the subjects/domains.

But I still managed to climb corporate ladder Sr VP, Executive Director etc and resigned my job after getting promotion as CIO at age 45. To give hint to wd40, I am the one of the main guy who set up your first job office in Singapore center of excellence. I might have not reached this career if I am in India.

Funny thing is I left Indian govt job and I came to US in 2002 because I didn’t get promotion as one of my subordinate got promoted because of some caste system reservation.

When I resigned my job 5 years ago with very little money on hand , I thought it’s going to be semi retirement and will go back to some job if I get bored or something else . But no regrets and fully retired. I am happy with what I am even though I am not rich like RBee, OS2, Sappro , Lakshya and others in this forum.

Sorry for typos and grammar as I am typing on phone and am traveling.