So, Bye-Bye.... Miss American Pie...

The rushing sound of an era coming to an end in your life is an incomparable acoustic. What makes the difference, however, is whether the vision of that enormous upheaval makes you smile and ride the surf with excitement, or whether it makes you look back over your shoulder at the shore that you can no longer hold on to.

That day in my life is here. Like a magnet drawn to its other half, I’m going back home. After almost 4 years in the United States of America, I’m fulfilling my tryst with destiny.

I came here in 2004 with the quintessential “American Dream”. And I can say today, that one thing is sure of this country – if you have the merit (and simply the merit – nothing else) you can achieve the triumvirate of “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”. Through the passages of time, this one fact about America has remained unchanged.

I came as a student here – fresh out of my under-grad school – with just a few dollars in traveler’s checks. The first blast of the American education system was a harsh one to bear. It was an education system taken to a whole another and advanced level by this country. Being used to the old and bumpy jalopy ride of the Indian under-grad system, the American one seemed so awesomely spell-binding. Progressing from that to graduation was a journey I shall never forget in my life. Bagging a job offer upon graduation can easily be listed as one of the most satisfying feelings a person feels. It’s something like an iron-clad confirmation from the open world that your 20 years of efforts for higher and better education were indeed justified and worthwhile.

When I began my work life here in the USA, I was exposed for the first time to two things – one, the corporate world and second, the upper-middle income independent lifestyle. I’ve dabbled in many aspects of either and the experience has been a deeply educative one.

So today, when I take that leap homewards, I’ve been asked this question so many times that I now myself wonder – “What shall I miss from this land of the free and home of the brave”?

I guess, the first thing I shall miss is the notion of “abundant physical personal space”. I reiterate that I am not speaking of the abstract notion of “personal space” – but the real physical notion of a “personal space bubble”. Especially in the working life, this bubble is huge in America and it’s a concept that is – gladly – not followed that much in India.

I’ll miss the concept of “well organized traffic on broad smooth roads”. None of the adjectives placed in the quotes in the preceding sentence apply to either Indian cars or roads! J It’s a developed-country-luxury that I shall miss.

I’ll miss the lightening speed internet. To anybody who has not used internet in the US, you don’t really know how fast an internet I’m talking about. When pages open almost exactly when you click on something and movies download in the time it takes to have a bath…. Aah! Alas, what’s the point … I’ve to let go of it. J

I’ll miss the winters here. I thought I shall never say this, but yes, it’s something you begin to like after you experience your first sub-zero mercury drop. There’s something oddly attractive in stepping out of the door into a cool frosty morning and walking into a coffee shop for a cuppa.

I’ll miss the opportunity to try authentic cuisines from absolutely all over the world, made by cooks from those very countries. That’s one specialty of this country. Having no ethnic population of its own, this country has created its ethnicity from a collage of multi-national populace. And I’ve thoroughly experimented and enjoyed the variation of cuisines in the US.

I’ll miss my two homes – 2303 Champion Court where I did my grad-school and my Reston abode – one for its emotional comforts and the other for its material counterparts.

I’ll miss “googling” my complete everyday needs and finding answers to absolutely anything I need in my daily activities on the internet. From finding the lyrics of a song I want to download to doing restaurant seat reservations to finding out where I’ll get a particular brand of chocolate to booking my airline seats – everything can and is done online. It’s the true life support system of this country.

However, the people make the place for me. And it is here that my pull towards India lies.

I’ll not miss the mundane “Hi’s” and “Hello’s” that people hand out here – I’d much rather have the bear hugs of friends and loving attentions of my mamma in India.

I’ll not miss the dead silence and empty dreary streets of the US – I’d rather have the bustle of India and the tens of people on the streets where you stand a chance of bumping into an old friend – something that has no chance of happening here.

I’ll not miss the lonely walks to the coffee house – I’d rather have the very inexpensive and profoundly simple joy of sitting with your family for an evening cup of tea and share my life with them.

I’ll not miss the horrible feeling of keeping in touch with your family and fiancée only over the pithy and appalling Reliance India calling card – I’d rather see them and live with them.

I’ll not miss the apathy of the people I interact with towards doing anything in a group - I’d rather have the enthusiasm I share with my gang of old school and neighborhood friends. It’s a lot better than seeing all your friends staring at the computer in an inert schedule.

I’ll not miss the empty feeling at the end of the day, like being stranded on an island where your presence or absence makes no real difference to anybody. I’d rather have the presence of people in my life who care if I come home late or who bring that sense of an anchor in my life – people who ground me and remind me of being part of a tree and not just some driftwood.

I move on now, to my home land – a country where the quality of life is defined by its cohesive spirit – a country that holds my roots.

It’s a difficult step to take, for change is always difficult. It’s the first law of human inertia. J But, be as it may, I remember the line from Robert Frost’s “The Road not taken” –

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”