Coming to America

Arriving in the United States for the first time is an experience that is bound to provoke thoughts and/or evoke reactions from any Indian. The nature and intensity of the reaction would depend on one’s perspective towards life in general. Hence reactions range from those of awe (at the omnipresent smooth infrastructural machinery – a characteristic of the First World), to that of pure sensual thrill (after all isn’t this the land of milk and honey, it also has a city notoriously named as the “Sin City” – more or less characterizing the uninhibited nature of the entire country in the form of an abundance of sensual delights of the ‘food, flesh and fashion’ variety) to those of a more philosophical in nature (We definitely are children of a ‘Lesser God’ , for them to soak in the excesses of this abundance and for us to be left jostling for everything – earth, water, air)

My story started on the Frankfurt-Dallas leg of the Banaglore-Frankfurt-Dallas journey. The sense of alienation set in as I found myself in unfamiliar surroundings – pay phones had to be used by swiping cards (where did the good old coin slot go?!) and menu cards read out prices in Euros. In the flight, the familiar sight of ‘desis’ was replaced with those of Americans and Europeans – and it finally begun to settle in, I’m on my way far, far away from home. And I clung on, to the strains of Bollywood music, which surprisingly had found its way into one of the radio channels from of the in-flight entertainment – the only thing known in a largely unknown setting.

The drive from the airport to home unfolded what is oft heard about the western world – open spaces and wide roads – spotless (and also human less.) Once you start settling in to your apartment, another phenomenon of the western world hits you – technology has replaced the human factor. You have remote controlled gates into the apartment complex, replacing the ubiquitous ‘watchman’ back home; the dishwasher-washer-dryer-vacuum cleaner combo has made the man-Friday ‘bai’ redundant. All a fallout of the fact that this is a land sparsely populated, resulting in an environment where a premium is placed on any service rendered by a human (something again, quite alien to one coming from a land where not only is labor cheap and readily available, but that particular flavour of human factor is a necessary ingredient of one’s life).

A visit to the local grocery store (besides the picturesque landscape of tree lined suburban houses, uncluttered roads and swanky cars) furthers the significance of the term ‘First World’ associated with this country – this truly, is the proverbial land of ‘milk and honey’, where abundance is the norm. It does leave one introspecting and questioning the reasoning behind it all – a question, though quite obvious, but nevertheless complex – why are we so poor and when does our status elevate from being that of a ‘developing’ nation to that of a ‘developed’ one?

Many questions, few answers and largely musings – this more or less explain the immediate and current mental state associated with my first visit to the United States. Settling down into this new country, adapting to the newness, till the unknown gets more known shall, hopefully open up avenues of exploration to experience a new culture, way of life and learning of all that is positive and interesting.