I am a programmer from India. I somehow prefer programmer over software engineer. I turned 23 on 11th. And for me 22 was complicated enough. Interestingly, I am not from any IIT, NIT or whatever that you mention and neither do I have a job in the big brand firm.
But still I think the situation is somewhat better than what you have mentioned in your post. Maybe its a difference between where we are located but I don't get that much heat anymore as far as job and stuff are related. Also I do not think everyone should care about your open source contributions or code quality, unless by nobody you meant people who code next to you.
Also its great that you finally are doing what you like. It is pretty guaranteed that there would be people out complaining about something in your life even if you were working at some big company. It is difficult enough to be bothered with what we are doing, that we should care about what others thing. ;-) Oh btw, Happy Birthday!