Memories down the lane !!!

It has been 4 long years since I moved to the US with my hubby and my little princess. Our experiences seem to be end less. My hubby keeps telling me that from our last 4 years of experiences, he could write 4 books easily, one per year !! For us the kannada saying "ದೂರದ ಬೆಟ್ಟ ನುಣ್ಣಗೆ" which otherwise translates to "The grass is always greener on the other side" applies perfectly. But there is always a satisfaction in me that we have mixture of experiences and sometimes its fun to share with someone. Till the time I came to US I did not know what shifting was because I never had any experience in shifting residence in India before my marriage and also after my marriage since my husband's family also lived in Bangalore. So I cannot exactly say that I did do any shifting because I hardly moved 5 kms from my place. But now in the last 4 yrs we have to shifted to 6 different states and I am now staying in Michigan State from past 1.5 years and I always think why we did not relocate from this place as moving has become somewhat like a hobby. My husband always jokes that if we had an oppurtunity to campaign for President Obama before election, we could have visited all 50 states in the US of A. As the time passed by, we have also got used to this kind of living but luckily not to 'American' culture- may be the environment in which we were brought up is obstructing us from accepting this new culture. Everyone say Americans do not have value for people, relationship etc but after seeing felow Indians around me, I feel we Indians also have no value for human kind. In the name of love, relations people are harassed and lifes are put into miserable situation. This reminds me of Darwin's theory " Struggle for existence" which has very much influenced these Americans by having their own life style and taking up all the goods and bads to themselves where as we Indians always want to make our existence by putting our bads to others. Whatever it is, after staying away from home for quite some time now, small amount of Patriotism in me makes me feel and tell " INDIA IS CERTAINLY GREAT " .

In 1995 there was this Kannada movie by title "America America !!" was released in namma Bengalooru, which had a story about the life style of Indians in the US of A. When the movie was released I had just completed my schooling. I still remember that me along with my 4 other frnds had been to watch this movie. At that point of time, the movie was a mere excitment for us since it showed few places in US and those days coming to abroad was not that easy as compared to now and it was not a dream come true situation for a middle class Indian to come abroad. But over years due to Globalalization India changed its position from Under developed country to Developed country and now more or less 40% of Indian population have become NRIs of one or the other kind as they stay longer time outside India. Over the years, when I watch the same movie now, the feelings in me are different. Everytime I watch a scene in the movie, I tend to co-relate that particular situation with one or the other incidents that I have experienced. After coming here may be I have watched the same movie probably more than 10 times but still I like to watch it again and again as there is somekind of freshness in that movie. My hubby always makes fun saying that if the director were to make a second part of this movie, he need not come to US in search of a story. Instead he could contact my hubby as he has got more than one story to narrate. Hope the day comes in my hubby's life where some one turns his stories into a film.