“The Best time for new beginnings is NOW !”

Welcome, 2023!

Who starts their first post of the year one month and a week later? Well, some do. Right? And, they have an excuse too! So do I! 😊

Well, I do have a genuine reason that I was travelling! I was busy between a wedding of a niece and the 1^st birthday of a nephew! And all this was in India! The beautiful India! By the way, I will talk about these two events, later, perhaps in another post… After coming back from India, my one month leave from work cost me my time, and I was on a rollercoaster of loads of work.

Well, whenever I go to India, I am amazed by the people, the crowds, the traffic, the vehicles, the shops, the different clothes, the different cultures and the variety of food. I go to India often, but I still feel amazed seeing India, every single time!  

I know, it might sound weird when I say that I am amazed by the crowds and traffic too. Let me explain. It is easy to drive on the wide roads, the half empty roads of a country like America. But, driving with so much of traffic, with so many vehicles, cars, buses, two wheelers, bikes, is surely an amazing feat. Whenever I was in a car, and we were in the traffic, I applauded the way everyone drove safe in spite of all the traffic around. No breaking rules either. I felt that Indians do have the patience to drive or commute from one place to another, more than any other country people.

The vast population has also not been a problem for any Indian staying in India. We don’t stop and think negative that there are so many people around and we don’t have space to breathe. No, we never do that. It has always been ok to stand in near proximity in lines, breathe into each other’s neck or face and no one judges you or thinks bad about you. We always know how to survive in India.

When I first came to the US, the first thing I noticed was the distance between people in a line, everywhere. In the stores, the malls, the amusement parks, the movie theatres, everywhere. A smile played on my lips when I saw that because I imagined all these people in the US transported to India. How would they survive? They wouldn’t be able to, for sure. It is possible in the US because the land is large, and the population is miniscule.

Any non-Indian, often wonders, how do so many people live harmoniously in India. They might not say it out loud, but sometimes, it is evident in their talk. Well, I don’t blame that they wonder!  India not only has a lot of languages, a lot of religions, but it also has a lot of cultures within each state. And the beauty of it that all of us live together, not only meeting and greeting each other but residing and living next to each other and that too, harmoniously! We celebrate each other’s festivals, we try to learn each other’s languages and above all, we try to imbibe each other’s culture into the other. Sounds dramatic! Yes, I know! But, it is not drama, it is life! Any Indian’s life! Well, strange but true, that Americans have different slangs and accents, in different states and surprisingly enough, they make fun of each other’s accent too.

When I say cultures, in the plural, I should also mention the different cuisines we have in India. People from other countries call it Indian cuisine. Agreed! But Indian cuisine consists of cuisines from so many states, so many districts, so many cities, so many towns, so many villages and so many different homes of people of India. The food of India is as vast as the population of India. We share food, we share recipes, we taste different varieties of food from each part of each state. Just like some people like to taste different cuisines from different countries, in the US, they should also understand and taste different cuisines that reign in different parts of India. They anyways do not have a set cuisine of the country and try to ‘Americanize’, for the lack of a better word, every cuisine from every country. Try us, too!

People say that we have so many religions in India and so we have differences. No, we don’t. It is the media and fanatics of religions who propaganda that. We all have friends of different religions back in India, in schools, in colleges or at workplaces. We never look down or scorn any person of other religion when we are with them. In fact, we share food, we take part in each other’s festivals, we learn each other’s cultures, and we attend marriages of each other, too. So, where is the feud the world is talking about? Where is the daily vengeance or hatred that the media sees?

I know that my blog is ‘Life in the USA’, but today, the Indian in me wants to tell people of the USA, the greatness of India, through my eyes, an Indian American’s eyes. And hence, this post, for people who are non-Indians, or third and fourth generation Indians who might not know about India’s greatness. Also, this is for those new generation young Indians, who are curious about India, in general.

I am sure we Indians, can teach the Europeans how to learn languages. I am sure we can teach America how to co-exist with different culture people, without segregating them in the name of color. I am sure, we can teach a lot of countries how to live in harmony, despite the differences. I am sure, we can teach the Britishers that English is spoken in India, in different dialects, I must say, not just as a language but as a skillset to outreach the world. And are we there yet? Almost there!!

Hope you have a great year ahead!