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Breaking the Mold: New Career Paths in India
"Many young Indians are now looking for something more creative."
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By Nishat Kurwa
Much has been made of India’s booming economy, and all the new jobs opening up at American software companies, and call centers. But those careers don’t tell the whole story. Besides the class divide and unemployment that still exist, limiting many Indians to menial servant jobs, middle and upper class Indians who aren’t riding the technology boom are finding satisfaction in new lines of work. College grads are chasing dream jobs that may not have even existed for their parents’ generation, and making a good living while they’re at it. Youth Radio’s Nishat Kurwa talked to young Indians who are following quirky career paths that might sound more L.A. than Bombay.
MUSTAFA (on tape)
Right leg forward! Grunt! Jump up, I want you to snap more. Step in, and switch! Switch! Jump up, snap!
NISHAT
22-year-old Mustafa Zaveri is skinny, and tall, and his bandana and flimsy sweats make him look like a Karate Kid from India . He’s no Bruce Lee…no six pack, no bulging muscles…but here in Bombay at the trendy Qi Gym, he’s the kickboxing guru. This job didn’t even exist five years ago…in fact, the whole fitness scene is new to Bombay.
MUSTAFA (on tape)
People are getting really health conscious now. People want to get out, they want to work out right now.
NISHAT
With the workout craze in Bombay, new gyms are springing up every few blocks. Last year, Mustafa started shopping himself around until he got a contract with Qi to teach kickboxing.
MUSTAFA (on tape)
It’s good for me since….you can make…say, about 250 per class. I’m a trainer on the floor also…so maybe in a month, I’m making about 10,000.
NISHAT
Mustafa’s considerable salary of about 200 dollars a month from the gym is close to what his peers in call centers are making. Software and wireless companies provide the most coveted jobs in India, but many young Indians are now looking for something more creative.
MUSTAFA(on tape)
I like the human body…I like to see how people use themselves.
NISHAT
Like Mustafa, Faezeh Jalali works as a trainer at Qi part time. At night, she performs in experimental theater, something India hasn’t seen before. Faezeh originally planned to be a dentist. But after studying theater in the U.S., she chose acting even though the money’s not that great. It used to be that parents who sent their kids abroad to study, wanted them to return as dentists, lawyers and engineers.
FAEZEH (on tape)
But now it’s become so much more acceptable, now when I tell people I’m doing theater they’re like – ‘really?! That’s excellent, that’s so good!’
NISHAT
Tehzeeb Doctor is a features writer at Seventeen Magazine India, which just celebrated its first year in Bombay. When you listen to Tehzeeb talk about her workday at the magazine, it sounds like a replay of the office culture of the dot com boom in the U.S.
TEHZEEB (on tape)
This is the couch that we all love to lie on…if we’re having a hard day, a hung over day, any kind of day…so it’s just like a cozy corner we all rely on…
NISHAT
Tehzeeb always knew she wanted to be a writer. But until Seventeen, she was stuck doing copywriting for an ad agency. Now she’s writing stories about hot topics like cheating on college exams and Bollywood movie stars…and she’s breaking out of the usual professional career paths without disappointing all those hopeful adults.
TEHZEEB (on tape)
It was always like what are you doing…in life. I don’t know if it’s a country thing, that everyone wants to know what you’re doing next. I think now we’re getting more space to grow. People are just wanting to find self satisfaction.
NISHAT
Indians also want to be fulfilled beyond the workplace…You see it in the booming fashion market, the thriving club scene. Young people are even using new lines of credit to buy luxury items like cars and TV’s. Tehzeeb says it’s all connected.
TEHZEEB (on tape)
I think that’s the whole point of this partying hard, joining a gym to work out, working as hard as you can…you know how you had the whole American dream, it’s coming back in a different kind of way now.
NISHAT
It may sound odd to have the American dream in India. But in a booming economy like this, it’s not so far-fetched.
With a new field of career possibilities, there’s more incentive for college graduates to come back from coming abroad…or to stay in India in the first place.
- “Breaking the Mold: New Career Paths in India” was produced by Youth Radio's International
Desk, in association with National
Geographic.
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