En Passant #1 : Celebrating Gene Pools

Dare I open a can of worms by initiating this debate ?

I am as happy about Sundar Pichai's success - and for that matter, of Satya Nadella before him - as any other Indian (and for that matter, the rest of the world) is. But the fact is, they are no more "Indian" today than Bobby Jindal, Preet Bharara and Indra Nooyi are.

Once upon a time, for their own reasons, they went to the U.S., and ended up pursuing the American Dream; soon, they became part of it; they settled there, married there, had their children there - children who are proud to call themselves Americans.

India is today, for them, many things - an optional holiday destination; the land of their parents; a burgeoning economy that spells "opportunity" in big neon letters; and a country that insists on basking in their reflected glory. But for them, India is no longer home.

We need, therefore, to stop behaving like empty nesters and simply recognise what has been out there for a very long time - that we have a pretty good gene pool, that these are not just rabbits that are emerging out of hats, and that stuff like this is going to be happening - in the U.S. and elsewhere - for a very long time to come.

In the meantime, we have a house that we need to get in order.