For Dhoraji, where groundnut mills run at home and a large share of the extended family lives overseas.
Half the family is somewhere else
Dhoraji crushes groundnut into oil, and it has also sent an unusually large diaspora abroad - east Africa first, then Britain and elsewhere. Streets of substantial houses here were built with money earned overseas, and many are occupied only for part of the year.
The comparison that never stops
Living in a town where a good portion of your relatives left and prospered creates a permanent, unwinnable comparison. Every visit brings news of a cousin's business abroad, a nephew's degree, a currency conversion that makes local success look small.
Clients describe feeling behind while doing perfectly well by any local measure. The exchange rate is doing the judging, and it is not a fair judge.
What the work addresses
Choosing your measure deliberately. A mill running well in Dhoraji is a real achievement; converted into pounds it looks like nothing. Both statements are arithmetically true, and only one of them is useful for deciding how to live.
For those actually considering emigration, the work is separating a real plan from an inherited assumption that leaving is what successful people do.
Sessions
Online, in Gujarati. That also works if you are the relative abroad rather than the one at home.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you help me decide about emigrating?
- I can help you make it a decision rather than a drift. The visa and financial mechanics are somebody else work.
