Stint abroad

Life in India and Life abroad. As a saying goes in tamil..

Akkaraikku ikkarai patchai... which means, the other side is always greener when seen from this side of a bank.

When one lands on an alien ground, a strange feeling creeps in his/her mind. Some may even deny that. But, many will agree to this fact. What is not there in our motherland? I see many people here trying to get citizenship of an alien country. Is it good? No, I dont think so. I dont find any justification in this regard. People try to convince others for their act by telling that the standard of living is good in these countries.  I dont understand what these folks are trying to convey by the word "Standard". 

I felt like penning down my strong feelings against the feeling of settling down abroad when I came across a couple proudly telling that their children have been admitted to a local school and that they are being taught the local history lessons along with some form of arts like playing instruments. I could also find a few other couples who were happy to get their children admitted to a local school. I felt very hurt on hearing this. I could not digest the fact that these children were learning the history of the country that was ruling us. They were also telling that they were planning to settle down as they found(??!) that the education system here to be much better than the one in India.  If that is the case, then how come  there are many entrepreneurs in our country? 

Many Indians have settled down in foriegn countries, especially, in the countries like UK and US. Eventually, there are many kids, who grow up in foriegn lands without knowing the happiness of being around in their homeland. They are denied the happiness of being with their grandparents and their fellow cousins and relatives. They grow up listening to the likes of their foreign counterparts. Parents generally dont have time to take care of their kids and they get carried away by the so called standard of living, that they forget to impart the culture in these kids.  These children grow up, to only find them standing in the middle of a pond, not being able to move either this side or the other side. The children of these Indian parents, lose their identity.

I am not trying to degrade the kind of living in these countries. It is their way of living. They grow up to be independent enough and start to be on their own at a very small age. The local kids here, drink and start dating at a very small age. Parents dont have the control over these kids. Their main aim is to party and be in gangs whenever possible. I find many teen pubs opened for these young generations. Can this hold good for the Indian kids? 

 In order to get identified among these local population,I find many second generation children trying to cope with this situtaion. They are trying to behave like a local and so they start partying like the other local kids and start to lose their identity. They are neither Indian nor are they accepted as locals by the local population. They are not able to adapt themselves when they come to their hometown on occasional visits. They are not able to enjoy their stay in India.  The best example that can be quoted here is "Dev Patel". The Slumdog star who is brought up in UK, was not able to adjust to the local conditions and the croud when he was  taken to India for attending a family get-together. He is still not able to get over that feeling. 

Life isn't a bed of roses.  Though we can buy anything and everything in the other countries from the food varieties to the cloths, is it possible to buy the time that we spend away from our dear ones? Is it worth earning so much money being away from our near and dear ones? The couples who come down to foreign lands are not able to take care of their parents.  They are not able to help them,when their parents need them during dire situations. Will they be able to get back those precious times? The answer is a blatent "NO" to all these questions.

I am not trying to convey that one should not travel abroad to earn money. I am trying to convey that it is not fair to settle down in a foreign land claiming that those countries have got a better standard. I am also trying to say that we can get together to build a better place to live in India itself instead of setting up wrong examples to our future generations that it is better to live abroad rather than in India.

" India is  a better place to live in and let us all be proud to be Indians. JAI HO "