Debalin Das

[Dwarkesh Patel @dwarkesh_sp]

My family moved to the US when I was 8, but by the time I turned 20, my dad was still on an H1B (waiting to get processed for a green card).

Once I turned 21, I would age out as his dependent, despite the fact that I basically grew up in the US.

I thought I'd have to become a code monkey after college, and even that only if I was lucky enough to win the H1B lottery.

Otherwise, back to India.

I had become a huge fan of @paulg's essays in college. I was actually depressed that my desire to start a startup or do something entrepreneurial was basically hopeless.

Working on the promising podcast I was doing as a side project? A beyond impossible pipe dream.

Even after 9 years, my dad wasn't able to get a green card - and the lines were only getting longer over time. I figured I'd be an old man before I could quit some FANG job and build my own thing.

By some miracle, COVID travel restrictions cleared out the lines, and I got my green card literally months before I would have aged out.

If not for this unbelievable coincidence, I would not be hosting the podcast.

In the best case, I would be shifting pixels around in the 3rd sub-sub-menu of some big tech software.

I'm incredibly grateful I made it through.

But it's unconscionable that we put the kids of high skilled immigrants through all this anxiety, and in many cases make them repeat the nerve-racking indentured life trajectory that they had to watch their parents go through.

[Debalin Das @debalin90]

@airindia @JM_Scindia @DGCAIndia @RNTata2000 After a lot of calling, trying to get help from miscellaneous people, I finally received my bag on 27th January. Though it's back, the headache and inconvenience was too much, communication was non-existent and @airindia didn't compensate me enough. Not going back, period.

[Debalin Das @debalin90]

@airindia do you simply choose to ignore the promises given to your customers, or is it just incompetence? I was told that my delayed baggage (ref: CCUAI40689) from DEL will be delivered to my home in CCU by end of day 21st Jan. Nobody knows why it still hasn't left DEL yet! 1/

[Debalin Das @debalin90]

@airindia @JM_Scindia @DGCAIndia @RNTata2000 @airindia this is the 4th day that you haven't cared about it at all. You keep telling me that somebody will call, but when? I have important time-sensitive things in my bag - you should be penalized, lucky for you most common people don't have the time to take you to court.

[Debalin Das @debalin90]

@airindia @airindia that's far from being good enough. Have you been able to locate the bag?

[Debalin Das @debalin90]

@airindia @airindia are you just buying time? Then at least do it with proper facts in place. It's so bad that it's funny right now.

[Debalin Das @debalin90]

@airindia @airindia what are you even saying? I know the baggage is in DEL already. I checked it out after the flight from SFO and checked it in myself in DEL for the flight to CCU.

[Debalin Das @debalin90]

@airindia I just have 2 questions - where is my bag right now? And if it isn't in CCU or it isn't on the way in a flight, why is that the case?