What struck me most wasn’t the history, it was watching my daughter experience it.
As the child of first-generation immigrants, I’m reminded that every generation inherits a story. Our responsibility is to honor that story while helping write the next chapter.
Grateful for history, perspective, and the chance to build a legacy worth passing on ❤️
Ayodhya is one of India’s most historically significant religious cities, associated in Hindu tradition with the birthplace of Lord Ram.
But what is unfolding there today is also an operations story.
Following the Ram Mandir inauguration in January 2024, multiple Indian media outlets reported visitor numbers in the tens of millions within the first year, citing state officials.
At that scale, the conversation becomes logistical:
• Can airport and rail networks absorb sustained surges? • How do sanitation and public health systems scale? • How is crowd flow managed safely? • How do local businesses integrate into formal economic systems?
Globally, major pilgrimage destinations function as complex operational ecosystems.
Vatican City influences Rome’s tourism flows. Mecca manages millions annually through coordinated logistics. Jerusalem operates within high-density heritage environments.
Faith drives movement. Infrastructure sustains it.
From a governance perspective, Ayodhya offers a useful case study in large-scale visitor management and interagency coordination.
When tens of millions move through a single city, administrative capacity becomes visible.
And visible capacity builds institutional confidence.
Why does initiative matter so much in American workplaces?
It’s not about bold personalities.
It’s about how many U.S. organizations are built.
If you look at companies like Amazon, one of their core leadership principles is “Ownership.” And ownership doesn’t just mean completing tasks. It means thinking beyond your immediate assignment, anticipating what’s needed next.
That principle reflects a broader structural reality.
Many U.S. organizations operate with distributed decision-making. Leaders set direction, but execution is expected to be driven by teams.
And here’s the economic piece.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, managerial and professional roles are among the highest labor-cost positions in most companies. That means managerial time is expensive.
So the system naturally rewards people who reduce the need for supervision.
Let’s make this concrete.
You’re asked to prepare a summary.
You prepare it. You send it. Task complete.
But the employee who adds…
“I’ve highlighted two potential risks and outlined next steps for review.”
…has done something different.
They’ve reduced uncertainty.
And in performance-driven environments, uncertainty slows decision-making.
When managers have to repeatedly clarify direction, assign every next move, or correct preventable gaps, that creates friction.
Initiative reduces friction.
And friction, in competitive markets, is costly.
Peter Drucker famously said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
In distributed systems, creating the future often means anticipating what’s needed before being told.
Now here’s where cross-cultural misunderstanding happens.
In more hierarchical systems, speaking up without instruction can feel inappropriate — even risky.
In many American organizations, waiting too long can be interpreted as dependency.
That distinction is structural, not personal.
When you understand that initiative signals readiness for larger responsibility, not just confidence, feedback becomes clearer.
Success across cultures isn’t about changing who you are.
It’s about understanding how the system measures value.
And in distributed American organizations, one of the clearest signals of value is this:
If you’re an Indian professional working in the U.S. or working with Western clients, there’s one habit that quietly, but quickly, weakens your authority:
STOP apologizing for existing.
“Sorry, just one small doubt.” “Sorry, maybe I’m wrong.” “Sorry to bother you.”
Culturally, many of us were raised to soften everything.
In India, that reads as respectful.
In America, it reads as unsure.
And perception becomes positioning.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Confidence in the U.S. workplace isn’t about volume.
It’s about certainty.
When you write or say: “Sorry to bother you…”
You’ve already framed yourself as the inconvenience.
When you say: “This may be wrong, but…”
You’ve already reduced the weight of your contribution.
Instead, try this:
“I have a question.” “Here’s my perspective.” “Following up on this.” “Let’s revisit that assumption.”
Same thought. Different posture.
American workplaces reward clarity and decisiveness, especially from high performers.
You don’t have to lose your cultural humility.
But you do need to remove the reflex apology.
Leadership doesn’t start when you get promoted.
It starts with how you speak.
If you’re building a career in America or any Western country, your words are building your reputation.
For practical insights on cross-cultural communication, leadership presence, and succeeding between systems, follow me.
I believe how you present yourself matters...regardless of the setting or how other people show up.
In public service, credibility isn’t just built through policy and performance. It’s also built through discipline, consistency, and how seriously you take yourself. Showing up polished isn’t about vanity, it’s about respect for yourself, your role, your responsibility and the people you serve.
Standards shouldn’t depend on the room you’re in. You bring them with you.
To understand why Indian Americans, and Indian H-1B holders in particular — are facing rising hostility today, we have to be honest about where the resentment comes from. It didn’t emerge overnight, and it didn’t come from nowhere.
A significant part of it stems from the *long-term abuse of the H-1B visa system, especially in computer science and IT outsourcing. For years, policymakers avoided confronting that reality...allowing the problem to grow unchecked.
The H-1B visa was created to address genuine skill shortages: cases where qualified American workers simply were not available. But over time, loopholes turned the program into a mechanism for *labor arbitrage*, not talent supplementation.
Here’s how the system was gamed.
Mass lottery flooding Large consulting and staffing firms submitted thousands of H-1B applications for vague, generic IT roles - software analyst, tester, systems support - positions that were not truly specialized and already abundant in the U.S. labor market. The strategy wasn’t precision hiring. It was volume. The more applications you submit, the better your odds, whether the job truly existed or not.
Wage suppression Employers routinely filed applications at the lowest wage tiers, even for experienced roles. That allowed companies to legally pay below market rates, undercut American workers, and push down salaries across entire teams. This wasn’t about skills shortages. It was about cost control.
Worker dependency Because H-1B visas are tied to employers, many workers were unable to leave exploitative situations without risking their legal status. That made them easier to use as compliant, replaceable labor. In documented cases, American employees were laid off and required to train their H-1B replacements, not because those replacements were better, but because they were cheaper.
Onshoring to enable offshoring Workers were brought to the U.S. temporarily to extract institutional knowledge, then entire operations were moved overseas. Once the transfer was complete, American jobs disappeared - and visa holders were rotated out.
Weak enforcement Audits were rare. Penalties were minimal. Firms repeatedly flagged for abuse continued operating. For years, everyone knew what was happening...and nothing meaningful changed.
The outcome was predictable.
American tech workers felt displaced. Wages stagnated. Trust collapsed.
And resentment spilled over from bad actors onto entire communities.
That’s how policy failure becomes racial hostility.
This is where Donald Trump enters the picture.....and where nuance matters.
Trump’s opposition to the H-1B program is not about immigration broadly, and it was not about Indian Americans as a community.
It focused on outsourcing firms gaming the system- companies using visas to undercut American workers rather than fill real shortages.
Under his administration, scrutiny increased, wage thresholds were raised, and approvals dropped sharply for firms with large concentrations of low-paid H-1B workers. The objective was clear: stop abuse, stop wage suppression, stop displacement.
That distinction matters; because H-1B abuse in tech does not define Indian Americans, and it does not define Indian H-1B holders either.
Look at healthcare.
Indian Americans make up roughly 1.5 percent of the U.S. population, yet they account for nearly 20 percent of physicians in the United States- more than 250,000 doctors. Many practice in rural and underserved communities, where American medical graduates are scarce.
They are not replacing Americans. They are filling shortages the system cannot meet on its own.
Hospitals depend on them. Patients rely on them. During COVID, they were on the front lines...not behind outsourcing contracts, but at hospital bedsides.
That is not visa abuse. That is system support.
The same distinction applies to trade and investment.
U.S.–India trade stands at nearly $200 billion annually, with a shared goal of *$500 billion by 2030**.
In February 2023, Air India placed a historic order for 220 aircraft from Boeing; one of the largest commercial aviation deals in history. That single order is expected to support over one million American jobs across 44 states, many of them well-paid roles that do not require four-year degrees.
That is Indian investment creating American employment; not displacement.
Now we arrive at the present moment.
After years of unchecked gaming in the IT sector, the system is tightening...and everyone is feeling it.
Legitimate Indian H-1B holders are facing interview suspensions, longer processing times, and heightened scrutiny, even when they followed the rules. Employers face uncertainty. Projects are delayed. Careers are paused.
This pain is real.
But the uncomfortable truth is this: this correction was long overdue.
So what should legitimate H-1B holders expect next?
First, longer waiting periods.
More interviews. More documentation. More verification. The era of rubber-stamp approvals is over.
Second, higher wage and role scrutiny. Jobs will need to clearly justify skill level, specialization, and pay. Generic IT roles will struggle. Highly skilled, clearly differentiated roles will not.
Third — and this is critical — long-term payoff for real value.
For H-1B holders who are genuinely adding value; building core products, advancing research, securing infrastructure, driving innovation; the system will ultimately work in their favor. As abuse is filtered out, legitimacy rises.
They won’t be competing with shell consultancies. They won’t be lumped in with bad actors. And they won’t carry the stigma created by years of misuse.
Yes, the slowdown is painful. Yes, the waiting is frustrating.
But this is the cost of restoring credibility to a system that lost it.
If reforms are enforced properly, the result isn’t exclusion; it’s a stronger, fairer H-1B program that protects American workers and rewards immigrants who came legally, contributed honestly, and played by the rules.
Priyanka Deo
I play tennis.
2 weeks ago | [YT] | 55
View 4 replies
Priyanka Deo
Summer 2026
1 month ago | [YT] | 53
View 2 replies
Priyanka Deo
Walking where Abraham Lincoln walked.
What struck me most wasn’t the history, it was watching my daughter experience it.
As the child of first-generation immigrants, I’m reminded that every generation inherits a story. Our responsibility is to honor that story while helping write the next chapter.
Grateful for history, perspective, and the chance to build a legacy worth passing on ❤️
1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 35
View 3 replies
Priyanka Deo
Across cultures, women continue to shape ideas, strengthen institutions, and inspire the next generation of leadership.
Happy International Women’s Day 🙏
4 months ago | [YT] | 185
View 14 replies
Priyanka Deo
Ayodhya is one of India’s most historically significant religious cities, associated in Hindu tradition with the birthplace of Lord Ram.
But what is unfolding there today is also an operations story.
Following the Ram Mandir inauguration in January 2024, multiple Indian media outlets reported visitor numbers in the tens of millions within the first year, citing state officials.
At that scale, the conversation becomes logistical:
• Can airport and rail networks absorb sustained surges?
• How do sanitation and public health systems scale?
• How is crowd flow managed safely?
• How do local businesses integrate into formal economic systems?
Globally, major pilgrimage destinations function as complex operational ecosystems.
Vatican City influences Rome’s tourism flows.
Mecca manages millions annually through coordinated logistics.
Jerusalem operates within high-density heritage environments.
Faith drives movement.
Infrastructure sustains it.
From a governance perspective, Ayodhya offers a useful case study in large-scale visitor management and interagency coordination.
When tens of millions move through a single city, administrative capacity becomes visible.
And visible capacity builds institutional confidence.
#PublicAdministration #USIndia #Operations #Ayodhya #SystemsThinking #Governance #RamMandir
5 months ago | [YT] | 138
View 7 replies
Priyanka Deo
Stop Over-Explaining at Work. Start Positioning.
If you’re an NRI professional in the U.S., this might be the habit holding you back:
Over-explaining.
You don’t need 6 sentences to justify a decision.
You don’t need to narrate your entire thought process.
You don’t need to apologize before you speak.
In many cultures, explaining = being thorough.
In American workplaces, clarity = authority.
The people who move up?
They speak in outcomes.
They speak in decisions.
They speak in positioning.
Not apologies.
If you want to grow in U.S. organizations:
Replace explanation with executive framing.
Instead of:
“I just wanted to clarify because maybe I misunderstood…”
Try:
“Here’s the direction I recommend.”
Confidence isn’t volume.
It’s compression.
Watch the full monologue, my latest video short.
#NRI #IndianProfessionals #WorkplaceSuccess #LeadershipDevelopment #CareerGrowth #CommunicationSkills
5 months ago | [YT] | 51
View 2 replies
Priyanka Deo
Why does initiative matter so much in American workplaces?
It’s not about bold personalities.
It’s about how many U.S. organizations are built.
If you look at companies like Amazon, one of their core leadership principles is “Ownership.” And ownership doesn’t just mean completing tasks. It means thinking beyond your immediate assignment, anticipating what’s needed next.
That principle reflects a broader structural reality.
Many U.S. organizations operate with distributed decision-making. Leaders set direction, but execution is expected to be driven by teams.
And here’s the economic piece.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, managerial and professional roles are among the highest labor-cost positions in most companies. That means managerial time is expensive.
So the system naturally rewards people who reduce the need for supervision.
Let’s make this concrete.
You’re asked to prepare a summary.
You prepare it.
You send it.
Task complete.
But the employee who adds…
“I’ve highlighted two potential risks and outlined next steps for review.”
…has done something different.
They’ve reduced uncertainty.
And in performance-driven environments, uncertainty slows decision-making.
When managers have to repeatedly clarify direction, assign every next move, or correct preventable gaps, that creates friction.
Initiative reduces friction.
And friction, in competitive markets, is costly.
Peter Drucker famously said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
In distributed systems, creating the future often means anticipating what’s needed before being told.
Now here’s where cross-cultural misunderstanding happens.
In more hierarchical systems, speaking up without instruction can feel inappropriate — even risky.
In many American organizations, waiting too long can be interpreted as dependency.
That distinction is structural, not personal.
When you understand that initiative signals readiness for larger responsibility, not just confidence, feedback becomes clearer.
Success across cultures isn’t about changing who you are.
It’s about understanding how the system measures value.
And in distributed American organizations, one of the clearest signals of value is this:
You make decisions easier.
You reduce uncertainty.
You accelerate execution.
That’s why initiative is rewarded.
5 months ago | [YT] | 41
View 4 replies
Priyanka Deo
Stop over-apologizing in the American workplace!
If you’re an Indian professional working in the U.S. or working with Western clients, there’s one habit that quietly, but quickly, weakens your authority:
STOP apologizing for existing.
“Sorry, just one small doubt.”
“Sorry, maybe I’m wrong.”
“Sorry to bother you.”
Culturally, many of us were raised to soften everything.
In India, that reads as respectful.
In America, it reads as unsure.
And perception becomes positioning.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Confidence in the U.S. workplace isn’t about volume.
It’s about certainty.
When you write or say:
“Sorry to bother you…”
You’ve already framed yourself as the inconvenience.
When you say:
“This may be wrong, but…”
You’ve already reduced the weight of your contribution.
Instead, try this:
“I have a question.”
“Here’s my perspective.”
“Following up on this.”
“Let’s revisit that assumption.”
Same thought. Different posture.
American workplaces reward clarity and decisiveness, especially from high performers.
You don’t have to lose your cultural humility.
But you do need to remove the reflex apology.
Leadership doesn’t start when you get promoted.
It starts with how you speak.
If you’re building a career in America or any Western country, your words are building your reputation.
For practical insights on cross-cultural communication, leadership presence, and succeeding between systems, follow me.
Namaste 🙏
5 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 80
View 3 replies
Priyanka Deo
I believe how you present yourself matters...regardless of the setting or how other people show up.
In public service, credibility isn’t just built through policy and performance. It’s also built through discipline, consistency, and how seriously you take yourself. Showing up polished isn’t about vanity, it’s about respect for yourself, your role, your responsibility and the people you serve.
Standards shouldn’t depend on the room you’re in. You bring them with you.
Put your opinions below.
6 months ago | [YT] | 195
View 10 replies
Priyanka Deo
To understand why Indian Americans, and Indian H-1B holders in particular — are facing rising hostility today, we have to be honest about where the resentment comes from. It didn’t emerge overnight, and it didn’t come from nowhere.
A significant part of it stems from the *long-term abuse of the H-1B visa system, especially in computer science and IT outsourcing. For years, policymakers avoided confronting that reality...allowing the problem to grow unchecked.
The H-1B visa was created to address genuine skill shortages: cases where qualified American workers simply were not available. But over time, loopholes turned the program into a mechanism for *labor arbitrage*, not talent supplementation.
Here’s how the system was gamed.
Mass lottery flooding
Large consulting and staffing firms submitted thousands of H-1B applications for vague, generic IT roles - software analyst, tester, systems support - positions that were not truly specialized and already abundant in the U.S. labor market. The strategy wasn’t precision hiring. It was volume. The more applications you submit, the better your odds, whether the job truly existed or not.
Wage suppression
Employers routinely filed applications at the lowest wage tiers, even for experienced roles. That allowed companies to legally pay below market rates, undercut American workers, and push down salaries across entire teams. This wasn’t about skills shortages. It was about cost control.
Worker dependency
Because H-1B visas are tied to employers, many workers were unable to leave exploitative situations without risking their legal status. That made them easier to use as compliant, replaceable labor. In documented cases, American employees were laid off and required to train their H-1B replacements, not because those replacements were better, but because they were cheaper.
Onshoring to enable offshoring
Workers were brought to the U.S. temporarily to extract institutional knowledge, then entire operations were moved overseas. Once the transfer was complete, American jobs disappeared - and visa holders were rotated out.
Weak enforcement
Audits were rare. Penalties were minimal. Firms repeatedly flagged for abuse continued operating. For years, everyone knew what was happening...and nothing meaningful changed.
The outcome was predictable.
American tech workers felt displaced.
Wages stagnated.
Trust collapsed.
And resentment spilled over from bad actors onto entire communities.
That’s how policy failure becomes racial hostility.
This is where Donald Trump enters the picture.....and where nuance matters.
Trump’s opposition to the H-1B program is not about immigration broadly, and it was not about Indian Americans as a community.
It focused on outsourcing firms gaming the system- companies using visas to undercut American workers rather than fill real shortages.
Under his administration, scrutiny increased, wage thresholds were raised, and approvals dropped sharply for firms with large concentrations of low-paid H-1B workers. The objective was clear: stop abuse, stop wage suppression, stop displacement.
That distinction matters; because H-1B abuse in tech does not define Indian Americans, and it does not define Indian H-1B holders either.
Look at healthcare.
Indian Americans make up roughly 1.5 percent of the U.S. population, yet they account for nearly 20 percent of physicians in the United States- more than 250,000 doctors. Many practice in rural and underserved communities, where American medical graduates are scarce.
They are not replacing Americans.
They are filling shortages the system cannot meet on its own.
Hospitals depend on them. Patients rely on them. During COVID, they were on the front lines...not behind outsourcing contracts, but at hospital bedsides.
That is not visa abuse. That is system support.
The same distinction applies to trade and investment.
U.S.–India trade stands at nearly $200 billion annually, with a shared goal of *$500 billion by 2030**.
In February 2023, Air India placed a historic order for 220 aircraft from Boeing; one of the largest commercial aviation deals in history. That single order is expected to support over one million American jobs across 44 states, many of them well-paid roles that do not require four-year degrees.
That is Indian investment creating American employment; not displacement.
Now we arrive at the present moment.
After years of unchecked gaming in the IT sector, the system is tightening...and everyone is feeling it.
Legitimate Indian H-1B holders are facing interview suspensions, longer processing times, and heightened scrutiny, even when they followed the rules. Employers face uncertainty. Projects are delayed. Careers are paused.
This pain is real.
But the uncomfortable truth is this: this correction was long overdue.
So what should legitimate H-1B holders expect next?
First, longer waiting periods.
More interviews. More documentation. More verification. The era of rubber-stamp approvals is over.
Second, higher wage and role scrutiny.
Jobs will need to clearly justify skill level, specialization, and pay. Generic IT roles will struggle. Highly skilled, clearly differentiated roles will not.
Third — and this is critical — long-term payoff for real value.
For H-1B holders who are genuinely adding value; building core products, advancing research, securing infrastructure, driving innovation; the system will ultimately work in their favor. As abuse is filtered out, legitimacy rises.
They won’t be competing with shell consultancies.
They won’t be lumped in with bad actors.
And they won’t carry the stigma created by years of misuse.
Yes, the slowdown is painful.
Yes, the waiting is frustrating.
But this is the cost of restoring credibility to a system that lost it.
If reforms are enforced properly, the result isn’t exclusion; it’s a stronger, fairer H-1B program that protects American workers and rewards immigrants who came legally, contributed honestly, and played by the rules.
That isn’t anti-immigrant.
That’s accountability.
And it’s long overdue.
6 months ago | [YT] | 51
View 9 replies
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