Three weeks – and I am home sick! After a long time in my life. Or shall I say homeland sick? 🙂 Just three weeks in this country of aspirations, and I know that my decision to not live in the US need not have only the patriotic-nationalistic basis. It has a very individual element to it. This is not a place where I can live.
No, I do not hate everything American. I have nothing against America or Americans either. I am not a fanatic swadeshi supporter or a communist who hates America for it being America. No, none of that. But I don’t want to live here.
Yes, in India car-drivers do not stop for pedestrians. But in India I do not have to feel miserable if I do not have a car! My world is still reachable…
Restaurant waiters or any service providers there do not act like my best buddies. Yet they are more involved in me than the ones here whose seem to have been waiting for only me to make their day meaningful and yet are so impersonal in reality.
The streets do not have signs there, but I can always stop and ask people for directions. Nobody would think of that as strange.
Diseases may be easy to catch there, but I do not have to bother about an insurance as the first thing if I fall ill.
When I walk out of my home there, there is a much better chance that I will see some life, some people around.
Vegetarian food does not mean eating “Ghaas-Phoos” quite literally in India!
India has been unable to maintain museums and heritage sites, but we have a history to talk about.
You have to buy a ticket to enter the airports in India, but you do not have to take off your shoes and belt for boarding the flight.
India has Himalayas to protect people from the chilly winds from North!
You do not have to be a prince or princess or heir/heiress of a big business to stop worrying about cooking and cleaning in India.
But most importantly, I have grown up there. I am used to India. I am comfortable there. I do not want to make adjustment right and left. I just want to be there. That’s mine!
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This is not the most rational rambling one can write, but I hope you understand that while feeling home-sick, rationality is not the thing expected. But that does not mean I am being apologetic about not liking the place 🙂 I have already shortened my trip by one week and am still counting days before I get back.
Miles to go... 
tu chal main aata hoon 🙂
It seems very rational to me!
I don’t know why people agree to adjust so much just for money. It is not as if in India you are dying of hunger of something.
I remember reading my hindi book in std. 9th I guess about how people from India always lament this country of so much ills and hard life where as a “tundra wasi” are more satisfied than us. (statistically may be wrong but I am just reproducing something I read)
Is it something which is in our blood ? Can we not ever love and like our own country (or for that matter snything whihc is actually our own)?
Interesting thought Jaya!
I have very similar thoughts.. Ive always rejected offers to travel abroad.. for the same reasons.. and even more.:).
Best of luck.. come back soon..
i(we) wud not feel homesick if these IT companies had their offices in bihar 😦
Well said. That’s the case with a lot of desi people.
*You will b back*.Kasam mountain view ki…YA purnia ki.Thought of a highly matured person,I was not wrong ever I mean wen i asked for help without knowing u.Money is there heart is here!
Easily one of your best posts. Hit very close to my heart. However, complicated and lofty dreams has compeled most people to think in global sense. I am waiting for the time, and hopefully be able to contribute towards it, when India becomes one stop shop for everybody’s dreams.
Have you read “Kasap” by Manohar Shyam Joshi, if not then do read it..
Hello Didi,
After a long time, I have checked your blog….gone just few line but read all….really nice thought…really such thought will give strenth me to return Darbhanga (my home) as earlier as possible…so that I could contribute my birth place and around…anyway this is five to ten years later plan after leaving IIT (any way I am gaining lots of fundae for local development from my prof. Dante(he is just great man)…I am not sure what should I do after IIT…but I would like to know for strategy for cracking IIM…could you suggest me…then please mail me…
“anyway your idea was great…I also don’t know why I am so thinking about my city since childhood)…..aap kabhi mumbai aao to jaroor batao ..I would like to meet you
I am living(MS)in Canada for last 6 months after working in India for one year. The points u raised come to ours mind quite often. The main thing which brought me here and many others that we wanted to do something which interested us, and sadly our country doesn’t have lot of opportunities for various fields. But thought of returning to India is in my mind. There is another important things also:
-Its become difficult to see your family due to monetary and time constraints :(. An average India trip requires at least 3 week holiday.
Yet another comment but with true admiration to the feelings.
I’m Piyush Gupta, working out of Bangalore.
the article was hilarious and im sure it struck a chord with all of us in this land of “dollars” …and the most touching of all the points was “When I walk out of my home there, there is a much better chance that I will see some life, some people around.”
certainly i never understand what these people do inside their houses all the time….there is no hustle bustle on the streets…in short NO LIFE…
anyways wishing u that the rest of ur stay more enjoyable !!!
nice thoughts
I agree on most of the points… and especially “I have grown up there. I am used to India. I am comfortable there” and that’s what people try to change by making adjustments.
Regarding stay in India, I also fall in the same group, someone is not against USA, likes to travel and would not mind working there for sometime but cannot stay there. When it comes about living your life you should be comfortable in the place you stay in. In Usa, materialism, money , competition, profit and professionalism in everything and consider self before others are concepts of life. You see almost everyone doing it, it is the way of life , it is the culture. I do not want to spend my life in such a culture. Though I stay out of home, surrounded by acquaintances, strangers or friends most of the time, yet in India there is a different feeling altogether. You can be yourself without fear, you do not need to present yourself all the time and you feel like being among your people. That’s what makes a huge difference for choosing India and not USA.
There is much more to write here, but let it not become my blog instead of a comment on your blog.
Heartfelt rant, though as u acknowledge not quite rational. I have lived 14 years in London, back in Delhi now. Must admit – London felt cold and impersonal at first, now Delhi feels dead and boring. You do have to admit – a week in the land of dollars does not give you enough data to judge. And I will admit, that I must give Delhi a chance.