I am not sure where me or my friends are migrating to next .Thank heavens for the internet to help us keep in touch ,its vital in these times where none of us have time for a personal phone call to bicker about work and catch up on gossip.Recently,I joined facebook reluctantly after much coercion from my friends.The very concept of impersonal 'pokes' and snooping on others online never really appealed to me ,but ultimately I had to give in - and from everyone's location updates and photos,its obvious that we have all become ' modern nomads ' , travelling to new,greener pastures in search of prosperity .
It seems to me aboslutely every parent in India and many other places has a dream for his children to grow up,leave the past behind,abandon the country and settle in the west where he will progress in his career and life.Its awesome how parents who have never travelled to that place want you to move there,as if by intuition,wanting the best for their child - money,lifestyle,healthcare,environment ,and government. Not just the 'big american dream' but the abroad dream had been on the cards when I was born,and for the matter of fact - most of my friends and peers I know.Its just a mentality , a wish, a feeling and over all, a blessing that elders seem to want you to live - what they never had .Looking back,it is the most important decision of your life -taking off from your country of birth and upbringing and abandoning all your loved ones forever- be it for a further education, a job or to join your partner .
I heard that it was considered a bad thing to do in the ancient times to cross the sea - who knows why?Maybe because it changes your outlook in life forever?Maybe because it gives you a platform to compare the pros and cons of two separate geographical locations?Maybe because ambition could lead to greed for more conquering more like Alexander the Great or Christopher Columbus who discovered America?I remember us our girly group in college moaning in frustration after tough exams when we found out that our regular street food sandwich vendor who had been our saviour for 5 years had migrated to Australia,and my neighbour's taunts at her own son when she found out that our maid's son had gone to USA as a software engineer on a project whereas he was stuck in a rut of a job with the daily stress of crazy commuting in the Bombay traffic .Slowly and regulary,one by one,nearly every other friend,neighbour,relative and acquantaince had packed their bags from India and moved to the west forever.Most of my engineer friends were spoilt by their multinational companies who sponsored their trips via work assignments,others moved with their husbands who were settled abroad,a few others were supported by their pressurising parents who paid for their child's air travel and fees and living expenses to study at a reputed foreign University.In fact,if somebody from India does not have at least 1 family member in another country,its abnormal,with the exception of certain groups whose ambition is to patriotically serve their own motherland via army/police or other government jobs.
2004 was the year of ' exodus' when 8 of my close girlfriends got married (at the perfectly eligible age of 25 years) and moved abroad.It was so saddening ,but also mesmerising to keep in touch and compare each one's new life.In fact,silly me until recently believed that migration was a universal human instinct until I got asked the same annoying question time and again by different people : "How on earth can you abandon your own homeland and your immediate family after they have nurtured you all your life and made you the person you are today?How can you turn your back on your family and claim to be a close-knit family when you are not physically around them to look after them in their old age?" I got to thinking - how easy it is for most of us to decide to move like daredevils ,detaching ourselves so easily from our motherland whereas others cannot even dream of not seeing their parents for years , not eating a home cooked family meal or attending a traditional wedding for decades just because they are busy working away in another continent for the money or for their career.Is it for money or true love or the improved standard of living or to satisfy our nagging parents ' ambitions for us that most of us have moved? Is it because the grass is indeed greener on the other side?If it is then why on earth do we keep longing in our hearts to return to our homeland as the only antidote to feeling so homesick? Why do they moan so much then when they eventually move back to their own country after finishing their stint abroad?What a strange dilemma this can be.
I am not sure of the answer - all I can assume is home is where the heart is - The grass is greener wherever your gut tells you it is - If you believe that your destiny and not your actions landed your in a place which was not even your own choice or dream -then maybe it is.Some of us feel underestimated,saddened by the injustice,politics and state of affairs and just need to get away from it all in a place that they feel valued,respected and left alone to pursue their dreams.Others want to give their children an international cosmopolitan upbringing that they never had, a few others are overwhelmed to be given a platform by their work or University to pursue their career and academic ambitions which did not exist in their own homeland,and some of us just want to join the brigade and be closer to the rest of the people who migrated to be closer to them and miss them less.At the end of the day,wherever you go , whatever you do, one ought to be proud of his life rather than regretful or cynical .And its got to be worth it.The grass is greener wherever you are ,as long as you are content with your life overall .
