The movie was Omkara...I could see plates of samosas, kachori's and some amazing katti rolls being traded. Occasional guju chats (decibel a bit higher--as always) and some real well-dressed punjabi's turning some eyeballs in seemingly opposite directions (again - as always).. And all the pre-movie noise and excitement...But the only difference was..that the movie theater was owned by a Paki in the city of Houston !! The whole environment was just so Indian that for a moment I forgot I am away from desh.
Anyways..the whole crux of describing this theater was the discussion I had with one fellow-Indan out there. And it was actually a 2 min discussion in the men's toilet.
He was an Indian who had been in the US for a major portion of his life. I was an Indian who had been in this place for hardly two weeks. The moment he came to know that I had just come, he started being nostalgic about India and the beauty of staying there. But on being asked why he hadn’t gone back, the whole nostalgic tempo went for a toss. He didn’t have any definite answer and nor could I think of any. The generic ones - standard of living, work culture and corruption free life were pretty much the same. But then there had to be more.
I guess.. It’s the sheer perennial loss of adaptability which is the reason most of the Indians don’t go back. We just intend to.. When we were back there in India..We intended to study further..And we did everything under the sun to achieve that. Wrote GRE's / GMAT's.. Wrote some real good stuff..Went through the Visa ordeal.. Once we were here...We did things which we never did in our life..cleaned our toilets..cooked our own food..washed our utensils.. Can’t list all of them.. At that point of time we were adaptable.. We adapted to virtually everything.. Be it the ascent, eating habits, study formats..everything..
But where does that adaptability go when we ponder about going back. I am sick of seeing people crying over the phone and saying the "missing" etc on the phone. Cmon..if u are actually missing.. Go back and live that life which u want to...
I may sound paranoid..But I have been thinking about adaptability is such micro forms these days.. Somehow I feel the whole world revolves around it.. If one is ready to adapt to a particular situation, he will do it... I have seen people wanting to quit jobs but wouldn’t for the fear of living a lower standard of living. If they could only adapt to it. I am no better. Even I didn’t adapt to a lot of situations in life. But I see a wide scope of improvement on that front.
Sometimes I don’t realize where these postings lead to.. For me..Its just a vent.. maybe a pain to many !!!
During this whole blog posting I might have listened to Jana Gana Mana innumerable times..Gosh..Now I am getting nostalgic.. And I seriously hope that twenty years hence I dont end up meeting an indian newbie at an american theater..
6 comments:
dude...really superb post...agree completely on what you have said..just 2 mins before i saw this post i was discussing the same issue with a friend here. i want more such posts. again, very well written.
-Swapnil
Hey Rajat,
Well I agree and can relate to what you mean yaar.
I agree with you as well especially about the fact if you really miss home then go there...the bottom line is to be happy no matter where you are. A place is just a place that's what I believe be it Sydney, NY or Delhi. you know it's just another city.And yeah why can't you adapt going back is an extremely good question I think...love ur post dude as usual.
Hi Rajat, You have been maintaining the blog from July 2004! That's long. But you couldn't update it regularly as I see it.
This post is brilliant...The flow is just natural and easy to follow. You know I had the same sensation when I was in Belgium..But then I decided that I will go back and I did come back...now I even denied an onsite oppurtunity already...When I feel like going abroad, I will seek one :)
Do post more often...you write well.
Do send me the article about "Nature of man". Sounds like an interesting topic.
-Bharani.
Totally agree wth you rajat!!
Such as a fantastic thought provoking blog. I actually did a piggy back ride on this thought and made a post out of it in my own blog. Hey Rajat have a comment post in my own blog. Kudos dude, keep the cells churning.
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