My country India

I have been staying in the U.S. for more than 5 years now ... well yes, its not that long! but it seems like it has been a long time since I have been away from my Motherland. While growing up in India, I always thought of the U.S. as the super powerful nation, which had abundance of resources, where everyone has great opportunities ... (which is true). In me, somewhere there was a hidden dream of visting this nation atleast once in my lifetime. Even though I would deny that I wanted to come to the U.S. when confronted:). I must say, I definitely had a culture shock when I came to the US. I remember staying in an apartment for 2 years, and not knowing my neighbors. That is so different from India. If I were in India, my neighbor would have invited me for lunch or dinner, the very first day I moved into an apartment, to get aquainted. There is a sense of community in India. Another thing that appalled me was, people in the US are very concerned of their privacy. People here need space (a lot of it). Kids after the age of 18 no longer want/prefer to stay with their parents - they need privacy:). Well, it is the culture here, and it would be seen as a social stigma if one stayed with his/her parent after the age of 18. Yeah right! In India, I have stayed with my parents, till I got married:). Parents in the US do not spank their kids - it is an act of physical abuse. In India if we come up with such stupid regulations, then 9 out of 10 parents would serve life-time imprisonment:). I would not deny the fact that US is a place of free will ... yes, you can choose what you want to study - it is not just medicine or engineering (as it is case in India - large population in India prefer to major in one of these areas), but in the US, people do PhDs in music, foreign languages, etc. You see what I am saying? Americans are therefore well rounded and are somehow more creative. Also, in the US, merit is truely given credit. People with merit can go places. You might ask me how did Bush become the President of US then (and was also re-elected)? Was it his merit? Well, I am not talking about people in politics - I am talking about common people. People adhere to rules and regulations. One cannot bribe a cop and get out of the crime. Hmm ... in India, actors/actresses/wealthy clan come out clean after any offense they commit. In India, money takes you places! In the past 60 years after Independence, we have had our own tensions ... from neighboring countries, and within our own people ... riots and strikes. Inspite of all these things ... inspite of the cultural and religious diversity, inspite of the segregation between the rich and the poor, India has been one of the successful democratic nations, and is growing strong by the day. We the people, for the people, and by the people shall stand for each other, and make our country the super nation in the coming years! Amen!!

Update: I was re-reading this post and after so many years, Indian has changed so much. The India that I left is not longer the same country. Its a very advanced country, where every Indian has biometric ID card, taxations are better regularized, and a cleaner India (less bribe as well as better environmental changes which included movements like Swachcha Bharath.) There are more multiplexes, more Pizza Huts, McDonalds. There are more divorce rates, more independent females and more live-in relationships, more LGBT group coming out. Some change is for the better, but nevertheless, it is a different country now than what it was before.