A kiss of German mind and Indian roots
7:05 AM |
| Milan Pal in a hotel's roof top restaurant in Pushkar, India |
Immigration is in Milan Pal’s blood. Always restless as we talk by Skype, our video images looking at one another, he is going through his thick black curls with his small fingers. In his brightly lit Internet café, a clutter of loud male voices constantly disturbs us. No surprise that Indians start talking to him in Hindi – he looks exactly like one of them.
“Unfortunately, I can’t answer them. My father didn’t teach me his mother language,” he says in fluent German without the tiniest accent.
When his Indian father Surajit came to Germany more than 40 years ago, his goal was to fit in. Teaching your children Hindi made no sense in that world. So, Milan just looked different – a bronze skin in the midst of all pale classmakes in Neuss, a small town next to West German Düsseldorf.
“When my classmates were teasing me about my colour, my mom told me I shall call them milk with spit,” he grins. He has his father’s perfect teeth except one upper canine tooth is smaller than the other, so his smile is his.
From there came his life’s work and a company, "Prelocate", based in India and ready to help make immigration for both, Germans and Indians, easier. “You know, ‘Pre’ because we help beforehand”, he winks.
With a German management and Indian experts, so his slogan goes, the 28-year-old started the company just this year. After several cheap flights, going back and forth to India, he finally decided to stay for a while. In January he was meeting job candidates for a coffee, to find the perfect team.
With a German management and Indian experts, so his slogan goes, the 28-year-old started the company just this year. After several cheap flights, going back and forth to India, he finally decided to stay for a while. In January he was meeting job candidates for a coffee, to find the perfect team.
“Our concept is simple: Relocation Services and Intercultural Trainings in India. We will start in Kolkata and the Pune/Mumbai region this spring.”
In the same city his father left when he was around his age, Milan recently bought a house and started to renovate. It is coloured pink, not exactly his favourite, but it has an idyllic small garden with stocky palms that tickle the roof deck – “An oasis of tranquillity in dirty noisy Kolkata.” Also, Montu, Nelly and Dolly live here, his dad’s older brother and two sisters.The small green logo of "Prelocate" shows India’s silhouette surrounded by a circle of two interconnected arrows. This logo can also be read as the ongoing circle of immigration which Milan and his family passed through.
When Milan first arrived, he was carrying all those business ideas with him – “also ideas what to do with my life.” He had just finished his Master in European Culture and Economy in 2008 and was hungry for creating “something of my own.” Recently he got his Indian passport, which makes things easier: “Buying a house, for instance” he smiles.
Now he is a bit famous in his part of Kolkata just as his father was in the West German city Paderborn.
This article was written 01/03/2009 for the Berkeley Immigration Workshop.
Now he is a bit famous in his part of Kolkata just as his father was in the West German city Paderborn.
It is written in his soft chocolate brown eyes: His dream is to change things on a political stage, to work maybe in the development assistance. Exactly like Prelocate, he wants to bring cultures together. “This is what immigration is all about, isn’t it?”The small Indian shop owner looks surprised when Milan can’t understand him, and the neighbour at the Internet café starts babbling curiously in that choppy Indian street English.
This article was written 01/03/2009 for the Berkeley Immigration Workshop.
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