Byting Chill

And this too shall pass. Says Murali Krishna Devarakonda, 34, of Immigrants Support Network (www.isn.org): "Failure is worn as a badge of honour here and that is what makes the Valley different. People are not packing their bags and leaving." On March 27, isn held a meeting at Santa Clara attended by about 100 people, mostly recently laid-off IT professionals. "For many, the concern is about the options. For, the legal status of a laid-off foreign worker is not clear."

He's right. Daniel Horne, immigration attorney with Berry, Appleman and Leiden, llp in San Francisco says: "The ins has not spoken in one voice on this issue. This is because it recognises that the regulations do not currently provide a direct answer. Fortunately, it has indicated that they are working on a regulatory fix to provide guidance. However, as the ins is a large federal agency, they have difficulty providing rapid responses to such crises."

Meanwhile, life goes on. Especially since there is cautious optimism that things will improve sooner than feared. Unemployment rate in the Valley, after all, is only 2 per cent. Cautions Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard ceo: "Recovery is too strong a word, but we're talking about the second quarter being a bottom. I say with great caution because visibility remains limited." However, as Dossani points out: "Recovery will happen and the Fed thinks it will be in the June-July timeframe." Arvind Narain, senior vice-president of products and Internet services, Network Associates, is upbeat on the recent earnings of some of the Valley companies. "In this climate, we are looking at options in expanding our R&D presence in South Asia," he points out.

As a result, there's a lot more to cling on to than only hope. Says Anand Ramamoorthy, 26, a hardware engineer who still has a job: "For the Indians who came to the US after 1990, the alarm and the letdown is more acute. We have only seen the good times and this is the first time we have come across a bump in the road." Thokchom is wiser because he came just before the recession: "Engineers used to carpetbomb companies with their resumes. Often it took them four-five months before they got a job. Today, if you have the right skill, you can still get two-three job offers and in many cases you don't even have to submit resumes." For software professionals, it's clearly time to keep fingers tightly crossed.

(Some names have been changed on request)