Home sweet home

Living in America has been my dream ever since i was a little child. But when i was a little child, i did not think that i might actually fall in love with my city. I did not know that i have to maintain a long distance relationship. I did not know that pain could be so cruel. I did not know that America is so cold.

I do not regret my decision of coming here for my education. Not a single bit. But settling down here, having a family and raising my kids in this country is out of the big picture. I would like to, one day, go back to my hometown. Go back to where i started from. Not that it's hard surviving here, but because i want to help to build a better India so that no kid has to leave their families behind thousands of miles to live in the land of dreams. I want to help build an India which would be our own land of dreams. I would not want my kids to leave me and run to other countries because our own country cannot provide enough. If all the smart heads dedicate their lives to a foreign country then who would take care of what is our own?

I see the culture here. I see how i can never belong here 100%. I see how i am a foreigner and how they are insecure that i am a potential immigrant. That i am a potential "job-snatcher". If i were in their place i would completely understand. If a foreigner back at home snatches my job then i would eye them in a different way. I would. No denying that. But the point is that i am not American. Never will be. Even if i hold an American passport 20 years down the line, i will still be an immigrant. I would die in a land where i wasn't born. I would work for a land which is not mine. I will give my best to a land which will never accept me in all terms. America could be mine, but i would never be of America.

What i believe is utilizing resources. We can learn the ways of the super power and then implement in our haven, and make it a super-power one day. If all the educated people flee from India, then why wouldn't we have a Mamata Bannerji and Laloo Prasad Yadav governing the country. Why can't there be more of Shashi Tharoors and Rahul Gandhis? Why can't we have more of Harvards and Yales in India. I know the country cannot change overnight. The system is faulty from within. But if i try then someone else will be inspired, and then it will result in a chain reaction. But we HAVE to try, and i am ready to take the risk.

I am ready to make a change, however small it is. I am ready to go back to my country and serve it after i am done earning my degree. Maybe i was not smart enough for IIT, but at least i won't throw away my IIT-ian education and run to USA for a job. I rather spend dollars and earn rupees. Yes, it is a loss, but it is worth it.

There was a time when our forefathers traveled to distant lands to earn a degree and come back to our country. It is for them that the doors to the outside world opened, but they forgot to let us know when to close the door and return back to our roots. It is for them that India was educated in it's own way. The process is stagnant now because now people leave, but forget to return. How will the wheel move forward if the drivers are leaving their own chariots?

I need to prove to people, in and outside India, that our country has the potential. It has the potential of being the best. I am ready to pull a stunt after ten years, and land in my own house. The question is how many more are ready to take the plunge? How many actually believe, "Saare jahan se acchan, Hindustaan hamara" ?

I believe in it. Do you?