Life of Indians in North America

Travelling has always been my long-cherished dream and desire. I was fortunate enough to see the other side of the world. It was a unique kind of experience. It enabled me not only to see the world from a geographical point of view, but I started looking at the world from a totally different lens. Things suddenly started making sense. One of the changes I realized was the comparison. when I was in my home country, things were so obvious and I never questioned them, But when I landed in a different country, that too from a developing country to a developed country, it was a very accomplished learning experience. Now, I had something to compare with and appreciate the beauty of one over the other. Things were no more obvious. Following are a few things which people from India find amusing when they first land in North America:---

1. When people from India come to the USA, I should better be specific. Mostly youngsters come to the USA and specifically in Silicon Valley, thanks to the evolving software market and cheap labor. After doing the software debugging for long hours in the air-conditioned office, they are bitten by travel bugs on the weekends. It might be the curiosity to explore a new city or make the most of their time when they are in the US on company expenses.

2. Cooking: This is not amusing for many of the young software engineers, male and female alike. For few days, bigMac burgers, hot dogs, and pizzas keep their stomachs satisfied, but after a while, they start longing for the home-made rajma chawal or sambhar dosa. So, they start surfing for cooking blogs and Youtube and try their hands on cooking.

There is another angle to this as well. Some fortunate ones come on site with their spouses on their second honeymoon on company expenses, kind of. So, when husbands are busy in the office, their wives get bored at home. There is a reason for it. In America, life is different. You have machines for everything. For laundry, you have paid washing machine outlets usually in the basement of your apartment building. As it is paid, you plan to do the full laundry once a week. Everything is pretty much automatic, load the clothes and set the timer and forget it for a while. For dishwashing, the process is the same. People keep a lot of utensils so they can do the dishwashing when the dishwasher is fully loaded. People do the grocery only once in a week, usually on the weekends, thanks to the big size of the refrigerators there. Same goes for the cleaning, they do the vacuum once in a week. So, the point is you get some free time. In India, free time is luxury, because you can gossip with many people. But, here due to the time difference, you can not call India any time to gossip with friends and family, believe me, it is a kind of challenge. So, their wives come up with food and traveling blogs and cooking channels on the Youtube. This is a good team task as well, where wives contribute the content and husbands get the chance to showcase their technical video editing skills.

Baking: When I talk about the cooking, baking is another thing which everyone wants to try their hands to show off their baking skills on their trip to India. As oven and microwaves are the common commodities available in every kitchen, so you kind of try to acquire this skill. 

3. Driving: Though India has changed a lot in the past decade. But again, India is a big, diversified country and it takes time to change the things at full-scale. So, the next thing that becomes the reality in a big country like America is driving. You have to learn and get the driving license. In India, possessing a 4-wheeler is still considered a luxury and to know the driving is still a style. However, in America, due to the vast geographical structure of the country, it is a need. So, male and female alike, working or stay at home, one has to learn the driving.

 4. Potlucks: This is another thing which is a very important part of every Indian in America. This is the platform where one family hosts the event and the rest of the families bring one food item for everyone. Everybody gather, and gossip over the food of plate and rounds of drinks, though not alcoholic always, tea/coffee does work.

5. Temple: In India, temples are everywhere, and literally every nook and corner has a small or big temple. But in western countries, having a big temple in your city or area is like a paradise. Irrespective of the fact whether you are religious or spiritual, you make a point to visit the temple at least once a month. This is like a meeting point for all the desis to meet and interact with each other over a plate of free tasty Indian food plate. Yes, free tasty Indian food, in western countries, almost all the temples offer the free food along with the blessings of God and deities, isn't it interesting...

6. Roof: In India, a house roof is a special place for family get-togethers or for family gossips and some time for special celebrations like celebrating the Indian Independence by flying kites from the house roof. However, in the USA or Canada or Europe, you hardly have the access to the house roof.

7. If you happen to visit the USA or Europe during the end of summer or early fall, there is a lot of free flu vaccination campaigns.

Do leave a comment if I missed something and share your experience.