Char Ujle
By Arun Misra, Ph.D.

Decades ago, when I started selling insurance, and asked one of my Indian tennis buddies, as to why he did not call me for his homeowners’ insurance, when he closed on his house last week. The reply came, ‘char-char ujle agaye’, which means ‘four white insurance agents came’, sent by his realtor (also a white lady). He did not explain, but I understood that if a white agent comes to see an Indian client, the Indian agent has no chance of getting the business. This was from a friend with whom I used to play tennis almost every evening. What to expect from an unknown Indian prospect ?

This story has stuck in my mind for over 20 years now, and I have seen it being repeated time and again. Over 15 years ago, one of my good Indian friend and client, who allowed me numerous personal and business insurances for years, had remarked, ‘no Indian agent can come to my office or home, but you are an exception’. I thanked him for this gesture, but it did not seem as compliment, rather a sad state of affairs. It never sunk in that I was a good, competent agent but made me to ponder over the fact, how an Indian agent is treated by an Indian client, with disdain, who would run to a white competition so easily, and probably did business with me out of pity on a fellow Indian.

There is also a joke in Indian insurance circles, that if one has to pick up a check of one hundred dollars from an Indian client, the agent has to go to the clients’ home or office at least twice, the first time the client can not find his check book, and also has to take him to lunch for more than five or ten dollars one makes in commissions on the case, in the hope of getting more business in future. But if the same Indian client gives ten thousand dollars to a white agent, he will drive to the office of this white agent, and will politely stay in the line to deliver the funds to the agent’s secretary. In early 1990s, I encountered numerous Indians running with stacks of money or checks, in the lobby, elevators, or the parking lot, rushing to drop off funds to their white brokers in the same building, I worked at in Buckhead.

Whenever you go for lunch with an Indian prospect/client, the agent will always have to pick up the tab, no matter, if you have made or will make any fees/commissions from the discussions/transactions you conduct. But bring a white co-worker agent with you to the meeting, and the same Indian client becomes so generous, and will insist to pay for all three of you. This is so funny to watch.

In the last 20 years or so I have come to the following situation again and again. When an Indian starts entrepreneurship, opens a company, generally from his basement or the garage, I get a call to visit and discuss their insurance and investment needs. The guy will have no money to pay my fees, may not make it to better days, when I can expect to get paid for my time and work. An established agent ( me included), will not come, as they are chasing bigger fish. I receive plenty of thanks, but no money. Talk is cheap always comes to mind then. I have to spend lots of time explaining what kind of insurance one needs, which ones can be avoided to begin with, where to get them at the lowest price, and the new business owner feels so happy and obliged, and impressed with my expertise and acumen to get him/her settled in the business with so little. I feel proud helping some poor fellow and holding his/her hand in the process. Many do not succeed

and I consider it philanthropy. Those who do, a few years later they rent an office outside their homes, and put their spouse or a family member to answer phones and do clerical job. My job then becomes to fill various tax, legal and insurance forms, spend hours, all free of cost. Few years later, the guy makes more money, the spouse goes back to look after the children at home, and he/she hires a pretty white lady to run the office. This is a signal for me to go away, as a white secretary really controls the Indian business owner. She brings her boyfriend, father, brother, sister as the new insurance agent, as she can not understand me, and does not like my services. She relates better with her white folks.

The Indian guy has to move to white neighborhood, be friends with white people and get
business from them, as they control the system. I am shown the door. Like insurance agents, Indian brokers, accountants, office workers and attorneys are also replaced by their white counterparts in due course.

The owner of the business who used to call me ‘uncle’ and got numerous things done free, now does not return my phone calls. They will consider, at this stage, giving business to me as racism, nepotism supporting an Indian who might have questionable merits. Once you establish the insurance and investment plans for a company or an individual, as an agent, and get paid by commissions only, it takes years, even decades to make enough money for the time and energy you invest for the process, if they continue paying premiums and keep you as agent. Few agents, will contact a start up business but chase established companies, and steal your business and clients in seconds as Indian business owners fall for the company of whites so fast, and make them agents of record and let them receive fees on the work you have done.

Many big, well established Indian owned companies of all kinds in town now have passed through these stages, dozens of them, through me, I well remember. I have tried to protest each such incident on the grounds of morality, decency and legality. I have lost every time. Can an Indian agent against such odds succeed in approaching a well established Indian business owner for their insurance and investment business? Impossible. Many of my larger Indian clients have asked me, ‘why don’t you have many white clients’? If a successful Indian avoids dealing with an Indian agent, will a successful white guy bring his/her business to a Desi agent ? Never.

Many a times I have been asked by affluent Indians moving to town, to find them an attorney and an accountant, who must be whites, on the ground that Indians/Desis are not very professional, and they may divulge the information on their wealth to fellow Indians. I have had plenty of white friends in every profession, but once they get a foot in the door they bring their own friendly insurance agent, which becomes more acceptable to these affluent Indians than me, and I am out. I have lost numerous such prospects.

A white pretty teller girl, with a little twinkle in her eyes, or an invitation to the game of golf, at a bank can get an Indian’s fifty thousand dollars in CDs with such an ease, I always wonder. But for an Indian broker or agent getting the same account will take ten visits, several years, and numerous lunches, in addition to donations to their Indian associations and temples.

Once an Indian is out of the boat and gets a car insurance from a white agent, for another five years he drives all his fellow Indians and family members to this white agent to establish a friendship, spending hours to cultivate the goodwill of this white American guy, for no financial gains. Once his insurance claim is denied, he will call me for help and promise me to bring all his friends to me, only after this disenchantment.

Similarly when I quote a premium, an average Indian will fume at the high cost, but if I send my white office secretary to collect a check, she will bring twice the amount, while I can not succeed bringing even half of that. What a misplaced generosity.

If I narrate my experiences from the real estate transactions and mortgage business, I will bruise many more egos and offend a host of more people. Thus I will save those for future.

This narrative is not to offend my friends, clients and fellow Indians, but to confirm and concede that majority of my clients in insurance, investments, real estate and mortgage have been people from Indian subcontinent. Their help and support has made me to receive numerous laurels and awards in my profession, and has put bread and butter on my table for over two decades, in a very consistent way. I still have some of my original clients of over 20 years, and still have plenty of support and help from the community. I have lived comfortably, raised and got my children educated well at the best schools, and have plenty of grandchildren to play with.

Finally, with plenty of thanks and appreciation to the community, I wish to point out that the journey I have taken, I wish were a little easier than it has been. But I have enjoyed it immensely, did fairly well and never regretted leaving academia in 1985.