Disrupting and The Desi Condition

by Ravi Lad, Audio Engineer

My sister finished expressing her thought and reached to take another bite of her meal. I was almost finished myself, but her statement had stopped me dead in my tracks. I felt tears starting to well up in my eyes.

I was born and raised in the United States of my amazing Mom & Dad. In only their early twenties, they left their small villages in Gujarat to build a better life for themselves halfway across the world. Though they didn’t have much tangibly, undoubtedly, they carried with them a strong sense of duty. “What you’re supposed to do” was a concept that came as second nature to them. 

But where does “what you’re supposed to do” come from? What is it born out of? What value does it have? I think the answers to those questions are largely contextual. “The Desi Condition” of first-generation immigrants could be described as one in which getting out of poverty and creating a sense of stability were most important. Low-risk, high reward—just work hard and keep your head down. Medicine, science, engineering, law, business. Graduate, get married, buy a house, have kids. Valuable? Absolutely. Without a doubt.

“The Desi Condition” of second-generation immigrants, however, I would argue is one that is significantly less linear, and more disruptive of the status quo. I believe that our parents’ generation gave us a gift— the gift of choice. Finding a career that combines what you love, what you’re good at, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs is no longer a fantasy. It’s just scary. Because it’s hard to find, and we don’t know if it will work out. Risky? Absolutely. But compared to the risk our parents would have faced had they tried to chase the same? Significantly less.

I turn 24 this week. The next year will see my three-year anniversary of working as a full-time engineer. It will also see my two-year anniversary of studying music via Berklee. I’ve broken the path. Do I know where it leads? Absolutely not. Do I feel “on-purpose”? More than I ever have before.

“Oh my gosh you didn’t know!? Dad wanted to be a musician.”

Bio:

Ravi Lad is petroleum engineer by day, and a Berklee Online student and musician by night. Incorporating a diverse range of alternative, orchestral, and “neo-desi” influences in his music, Ravi hopes to prove to himself, his parents, and the world that disrupting the status quo is something worth being ‘proud’ of.