Family...

I always complain that I don’t like this country (USA)… and people always ask me why… everyone loves this country why don’t I? They say there is everything here. Well my experiences since I came here are like this. You have a fantastic middle class or lower middle class life here. I don’t have a car. So there is a fantastic bus and train service here. All the public places are well maintained and clean. But I don’t have that kind of a life in India. I never had to travel by bus in India. So technically I had a better life in India.

Besides, there is more to life than just a standard of living. I was seeing this commercial on TV where they were advertising this device, that if you press the button, the emergency paramedics would come over to your house. So if you fall down and you are living alone and can’t reach the phone, you can press the button and the paramedics arrive. Now such a thing would never be sold in India. Not only that, it cannot be shown on TV. It would be considered bad culture. Because no matter what, people live in families out there and there is a lot more value given to elders out there.

There is another commercial I was watching where this woman comes and asks her daughter what she is eating. She tells her mom that she is eating some sandwich that saves a lot of money and the mother says, “If you are saving so much money, why are you living with me?” parents literally throw their children out of their houses. They wait for their children to leave. This is absolutely unimaginable in India.

Parents kick their children out of their house and then they stay alone and weak when they grow old. Isn’t that funny? There is so much importance given to independence here that families have lost its value. I mean that’s what families are right, Interdependence? Parents take care of their children when they grow and children take care of their parents when they are old. If there is no interdependence, what’s the point in having human society in the first place?