There's always a rainy day in the future. That could be the maxim by which we Indians live. And our solution? To save. Money.
A trait that goes relatively unnoticed when we live amongst our compatriots. But becomes glaringly apparent as soon as we inhabit more foreign environments. Be it a short or long-term job posting or a fellowship outside India, it is almost certain that we will save some of the money we receive. And stash it away for that rainy day.
An Erasmus award holder from Europe once told my sister that it was quite impossible to even subsist in the Nordic countries on the Euro 1500 a month that he received. Surprising then that an Indian who was on the same scholarship in the same country, brought money back home to buy land!
And background or age has nothing to do with this tendency. Recently, I ran into someone who was moving into a two-bedroom flat (apartment in the U.S.) which already had three other occupants. This practice is quite common when young students move to the U.S. to start graduate school and are trying to get by on the teaching assistantship stipend that they receive. In this particular case, the husband of one of the occupants lived with her from time to time and my acquaintance was also planning to host her husband in the same flat for over a month. The maximum number of people would end up being six adults in this two-bedroom place. My acquaintance, however, wasn't a young graduate student. She was a 50-year old academic from a reputed Indian university. And she was receiving an above-average stipend for her six month stint in the U.S. as well as her Indian salary.
Strange indeed. But then I am no stranger to the practice of frugality either. On my first trip to Europe, courtesy my employer, I made every effort to stash away some of my daily allowance. The local supermarket was the go-to eating place instead of the quaint cafes that lined the cobbled streets. Sadly, a cuckoo clock and a little too much sightseeing ensured that I actually owed my employer some cash!
The Director of an Indian PSU used to have personal meetings with executives seconded abroad. He advised them to live well and not "save" money alone because once abroad, every individual is his country's brand ambassador and can contribute either way to the national image.
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