Hmm .. i really wanted to blog about this for a long time. Anyway here goes, since i have had an opportunity to live in america for a while i always compare and contrast living in america and in india. One of the things i really missed when i was away are being with my family. I don't know how to put it.... whenever i spend time with my family it feels great and may be its because i don't think about myself a lot when i am with them. But also one of the reasons i liked living in america was i had plenty of space to sit and contemplate, it's almost a feeling of discovering ones self. When all the noises and voices around you are silent you kinda figure out slowly but surely what you are really like and what you are not, i personally feel nothing teaches you more than your own company. After moving back i often wonder how many indians really get this space.
I mean lets face it India is a country of a billion people, Just to make a decent living you need to be extremely hardworking and diligent and thats just for starters. So if you have to do anything to standout you would need to be that much more industrious, so i often think the concepts of likes, dislikes, passion and interest gets lost to full fill the basics of our human needs to get food clothing and shelter regularly. Often i wonder is it because of this the family system is so much important in india. I mean thats the only easy and direct way of having something to look forward to and keep you occupied in the rat race around you. So the question then becomes would we have a such boasted family system if all our basic needs gets satisfied easily outside of it?.
Also i find people live and die by other's opinions in india. With so of them all around you everybody is ready to share their piece of advice on anything, and most of us including me are affected by what we hear and see around us. Often wonder if most of us just lead a second hand life so that we can appear to be somebody in front of the crowd. The question i have repeatedly is would everybody do what they do today if no one was around them to influence. As i see people at my work , family and friends everybody wants to be somebody, probably more so in india than other countries. Creating this idea of being some one seems to be much more important than living itself. I would think most of them would die rather than to lose their identities they have built about themselves. So if you are india with so many of them around how many different lives would you live? how many of them would you satisfy ? what happens to your own inner voice that gets drowned in all the commotion ? as life itself is a huge paradox ... are the most important things we cherish in our lives.. are they really boons or banes ??????
