Do you Know your International Colleague - Assignment Example

Do you know your International Colleague? In the past several years of work, I have worked with many colleagues, colleagues who were all different in their unique ways. It has always been a pleasure to learn and know these different colleagues. I have to come to learn and appreciate the uniqueness of all my colleagues. However, amongst them, one colleague intrigued me the most. The colleague’s country of origin is India. His name is Ranchodas Chanchadas. Ranchodas Chanchadas was of Indian descent, hence, represented the Indian culture. A culture that Vyas (1992) describes as being non-physical and spiritual in nature [Vya92] Ranchodas, and I worked in the same office. Usually, he was the first to arrive and last to leave the office. A habit, which can be described as one of pure determination and dedication. He was full of energy that while others took a coffee break, he continued working instead. Many of the other colleagues regarded his work ethic as an excess. However, I regarded it as a source of motivation. It was because of this attitude that Ranchodas chose to associate with me. He opened up to me, and we were the best of friends. In the course of our time together, I learnt that Ranchodas hailed from a family made up of twelve children. A family that is presently regarded as an enormous family. Of the twelve children, seven were his sisters, and four were his brothers. He was neither the oldest nor the youngest. Ranchodas was the fifth child in his family. He told me that he was the first boy in his family, a situation that had a huge impact on his role in the family. The socio-economic status of his family was of a middle-income level. This statement is based on the stories that he used to tell me of his family back in India. I recall him saying that even though his father was not well off, he ran a small business that enabled him to take him and his brothers to school. His family was not among the richest in their country. Neither was it the poorest, hence, the description, a middle-income level family. From his stories, I recall that the business that his father ran was inherited from his grandparents, his father’s mother and father. The respect that his family was accorded was not an issue to him. Nevertheless, he always said that for as long as he knew his family was not respected because they were not economically endowed. Ranchodas practiced Hinduism. He was a very religious individual who always took time to meditate during several breaks in the course of his work. As of now, I cannot ask him about his religion as we lost contact. However, during our time together, he was secretive about his religious beliefs but he always acted in tandem with his religious beliefs. Thus, his religious beliefs affected the way he worked. In spite of this, it did not affect the way he worked with me but it affected the way he worked as a person. I learnt to give him his time and space whenever I noticed he was meditating. Due to his family’s socio-economic status, Ranchodas was able to receive education up to high school level in India. It is after passing excellently that he received a scholarship to study in the US. He attended a public school, as his family could not afford to pay the school fees paid in private schools. The proportion of people in their country that has attained a high school level of education stands at around 41%. The percentage of Indians who have received university education stands at around 5.8% [Vij11]. These individuals gain entrance to university primarily through performance tests. Most of them receive university education in their home country except for the few who can afford it abroad or the brightest who get scholarships. Ranchodas did not consider his education inferior to mine as he had his university education in the US. At that time, Ranchodas was married. He married his distant cousin. Something he did not regard as appropriate, but he had to because his culture demanded so. Their marriage was an arranged marriage just as their culture demands. The spouse’s family of Ranchodas did not influence where he worked because he had achieved the highest level of education in his family. From my observations, his closest relationship was with his children. He always talked well of them and created time to take them to the parks. As he always told me about his children, I came to know that he had four children; three boys and one girl. His relationship with his children could be termed as very close because he even brought them to work on weekends. He did not show any favors to his boys or his girl. If he bought, one a chocolate bar, he would also buy the rest. It was during the moments with his children that he seemed the happiest. During the weekends, he spent most of his time with them. However, it was impossible to know how much time he spent with them during weekdays. From his talks, he planned to give the children the best education. However, it was unclear if he planned to send them away to a boarding school. He saw his responsibility towards his children as one that was composed of love, care, and provision. Ranchodas lived in a three-bed roomed rental home. The home was situated in an up-and-coming neighborhood. On one of my visits to his place, I noticed that his neighbors comprised of modern houses with several cars located outside several houses. There were few people along the streets too. The few people I saw along the road were from different ethnicities, and young. Thus, the neighborhood cannot be termed as an elite neighborhood. His ease and knowhow of the neighborhood indicated that he was satisfied with it. Ranchodas lived with his nuclear family. However, he planned to fly over several of his brothers and sisters to come live with him. Individually, the most important thing to him was his family. Most of the time, he would talk of the plans he had for his family; from his spouse and children to the extended family. He could be described as a family man who worked for his family and was dedicated to it. This is apart from his dedication at work. The time I spent with him as a colleague and a friend helped me know some of his most deeply held values. One of them was hard work. He always said that it is through hard work that he had got to where he is. I recall him saying that, if he had not worked hard in his studies, he would be running his father’s business back in India. He also held the affection very deeply. It can be suggested that this was a value he held deeply because of his children. His appreciativeness was a value that he valued deeply. At work, he was always appreciative of other colleagues, and he always lauded any colleague who helped him out. I realize that there exist numerous differences between my international colleague and me. However, it is in these differences that the association between him and me grew and developed. Various lessons have been learnt in this exercise. One of them is that many people in life have had to overcome cultural barriers in order to be where they are. In the case of Ranchodas, he had to overcome the norm that the firstborn son’s role is to grow up and take over the family’s business. By doing so, he was able to work hard and pass excellently to earn himself a scholarship that changed the course of his life. It is also learnt that, in India, the education levels are wanting, and there needs to be more consideration on education. The statistics obtained show a gradual decline in the percentage of Indians in each education level as one moves up the chain. In addition, it seems that the girl child in India is not regarded on the same considerations as the boy child. There was never a time that Ranchodas talked of his sisters being educated. The large family indicates that family planning in India is wanting. Twelve children in one family are a large number that would be hard to feed, educate, or even provide the basic needs. Hence, it is important that the number of children in the family is regulated. In addition, the family is a very fundamental unit in one’s life. It is the family that kept him going; that motivated him, and made him happy. Most of the values he held deeply were strongly associated with his family. References Vya92: , (Vyas, 1992), Vij11: , (Vij, 2011), Read More