Thursday, October 23, 2008
As Wall Street falters, angry Indian mothers scream: “Why didn’t you become doctor?!”
Upper Montclair, NJ—Indian-Americans who went against their parents urges and became bankers instead of doctors are really starting to feel the heat.
“The day I got laid off, my mom same-day aired me an MCAT book,” recounted Manan Desai, a 25 year old investment banker turned medical student. Seated next to his mother in their New Jersey living room, he continued: “She threw in a stethoscope, a pair of scrubs, and a note that said: ‘Stop embarrassing me.’”
Manan looked down sadly at the ill-fitting blue scrubs his mother now forced him to wear constantly, and his eyes told how deeply he yearned to be back in his crisp, Wall Street attire. “My loafers look terrible with these pants,” he said miserably, pulling at the legs of the scrubs to uncloak his Ferragamos. Manan slung the stethoscope around his neck like a noose, let his head hang to the side, and croaked out: “This is worse than death.”
Mrs. Desai, a portly woman dressed in a sari, traditional Indian garb, seemed vindicated. “At least now Manan can become a surgeon, no more of this stupid stock business.” Able to freely mold his broken spirit, she pointed authoritatively at her dejected son and added: “No more white girls, either.”
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October 23rd, 2008 at 10:44 am
Bwah! At least it’s not IT !!
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Pure genius. This makes up for that poor Rihanna post. I’m still laughing my ass off. So true.
October 23rd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Yeah, this is very true. My parents still don’t know what the hell IB really is.
October 23rd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
What bank hires indians for front-office jobs? Good god, the horror! Back office is about equal to medicine, so not much of a lifestyle/prestige change there Dirka Dirka Patel.
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:31 pm
This was awesome! and sounds like my mom
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:22 pm
If my mom read this she would cry. So true…
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
And giving up the white chicks would be worse than having to become a doctor. There I said it.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:16 am
hahahahah! Indian Mums in India don’t seem as bad!
They’ve got a ‘whatever’ air to them that makes one count one’s blessings for not having moved to the Promised Land.
October 24th, 2008 at 2:05 am
Anonymous at 7.06 PM,
All good banks hire Indians in the front office. Dont know how you can comment on that considering you work at the front office… in McDonalds.
- Desi banker
October 24th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Much better than that Rihanna post. I like these fillers.
October 24th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Wow that couldn’t hit any closer to home…
October 24th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Brilliant
October 24th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
i see a lot more indians on the trading floor than in banking
October 25th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
haha pretty funny stuff
October 27th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Funny. Looks like you’re coming back from your ‘Medellin’ post strong.
October 27th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
HAHA that’s great
October 27th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
money .. very money
October 28th, 2008 at 8:04 am
hey! what’s wrong with IT?!
October 28th, 2008 at 10:46 am
so brilliant, best post in a while!
October 28th, 2008 at 11:30 am
funny ….
October 28th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
This is beyond true.
My post added no value, similar to bankers.
October 29th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Good times for the Grenada and Dominica med schools..
October 29th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
“Good times for the Grenada and Dominica med schools..”
Hilarious!
October 29th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Hahaha…so truee..
October 29th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
=sniggers
October 31st, 2008 at 1:17 pm
My friend Raj become a gynecologist. He thought itd be very good. But it isnt. He sees discharges and other weird maladies daily.
I’m staying in banking. I am currently working as a teller at a B of A in Brooklyn. Finally I am in the front office - it is not all that great either.
October 31st, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Im asian and my mom told me to become a vet so i could help her cat
October 31st, 2008 at 1:20 pm
White chicks love my 28 spice garam masala
October 31st, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Mr. former-banker man, I’d love to see you go into medicine. After 2 years of going blind reading textbooks and powerpoint slides, your classes will move into the hospital where you’ll be my beeotch. Don’t fret, peroxide and elbow grease will get the blood off your Ferragamos.
Unlike your years at the bank, your 2 years as a scut-monkey will be rewarded with something that sounds like a sentence for white-collar crime: 3-8 years. You’ll be someone else’s beeotch earning subsistence level salaries with NO BONUSES. 80-hour work-rule, you say? Yeah you may only work 80 hours on the company’s clock but when after you punch-out, you have to study and be ready to be back at 6 am the next day. Try to learn this job just on company time and you’ll be as miserable a failure as Lehman Brothers. Party nights before your 1 day off per week may be accented by PBR, plastic jug vodka, or a cheap wine with cute animals on the label. Sorry, it’s hard to afford bottle service or Lafite when you’re taking home only $700/week. After you serve your time, you’ll be able to drag your weary self into full-time practice where you’ll be the FNG hustling to make partner.
So go ahead and go to medical school because I can’t wait to get a piece of your a**.
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:59 pm
right. manan should become a doctor so he can be in school til he’s 30, earn $40K a year in residency til he’s 35, only to find out his only option is to work for the gov’t by 2018.
stupid angry indian mothers. massive new fortunes will be created on wall street by then.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
“At least now Manan can become a surgeon, no more of this stupid stock business.”
the current wording would have been
“At least now Manan can become good surgeon, no more of this stupid stocks shmocks business.”
November 5th, 2008 at 9:43 am
unless you’re entering a highly competitive field like plastic surgery, radiology, dermatology etc there’s no point in going from banking to medicine. even nurses make more than some primary care docs in some parts of the country.