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Bharath had never thought about returning to India. After all, he had an amazing job at Amazon and had everything that he wished for in life - well mostly.
His father named him Bharath as he was born on 15th
of Aug. He grew up in Gwalior with an
extended family setup. He had to share a
small 2 bed house with one of his uncle's families, had to fight into
getting to the top 1% for his engineering admission reservation system, bribe
his way out for one of his land disputes, had a sneezing rate of 3/min because
of dust allergies and had a broken limb riding his Rajdoot bike just because a
water tanker decided to cut a lane during Gwalior’s rush hour.
His student visa to University of Los Angeles was his ticket
to the ultimate goal in his life. To the
USA!
7 years on, now the only Indian-ness left in him was with
his name. He had finally found his home
in a land far off of his own. He avoided
going back to India for 7 straight years just to maintain his permanent
application status. Staying in the US
was really important to him and the moment he got his green card, he genuinely
thought that he had made it in his life.
And then a thing called Marriage happened.
Shriya was very hesitant to quit her job and sacrifice
hanging out with her friends and relatives just to be in the US. Like all the other girls, she finally gave up
and married the guy her parents thought was a good match for her. They had a great first 2 years of marriage. And then it slowly started to show up. Bharat was calling her back.
She could never mentally be in the US. Every major move, every major financial
decision has to go through a primary filter of ‘is this worth it now,
considering we might be moving back to India sooner?’
Bharath could not handle the stress Shriya was putting him
through. They had their “discussion”
(fancy term for fight) every other week about why staying in US/India is
better. Each of them had their reasons. It started interfering in their daily
existence. Conversations like these became common -
“Bharath, there is no need to upgrade our Sofa right
now. We are good with our current 2 seater sofa. Morever, we might be moving back to
India sooner – so we don’t want to pile things up – yes?”
“No Shriya, lets lease a new BMW, its just $200/month more
than our current payment. You know it will
be worth it”
“I have told you many a times Bharath, this would be a
commitment for another 2 more years. I
don’t think we would be staying here that long.
We need to pack up sooner. You
don’t know what you are missing our there in India. You have been away way for too long. It’s a totally different place now. Trust me you will love it”
----
“I don’t want a iPhone from Verizon– get me one from
AT&T so that we can unlock it once we go back to India” Shriya got into
Bharath’s nerves way too often.
----
“But what about our planned trip to Hawaii” Bharath would try to please her.
“Nothing like being there for your brothers Sagaai” Shriya would counter argue.
"You love going on a hike honey"
–
"I do, but imagine me and you on your vintage Rajdoot 350 bike".
She tried to poke his motorcycle fanboyism.
"India has way too much air pollution"
"Complaining about your own homeland is not the right solution".
Bharath now comes back from his exhausting
day at work at Flipkart’s Bangaluru head quarters, bribed his way out for his
son’s school admission and has a sneeze rate of 5/min.
But he couldn’t care less.
He was so excited and looking forward for celebrating Diwali with his 15
cousins, has a vacation home setup at his ancestral village, takes his parents himself for their annual health checkups and was there for his grandfather’s final days. He had just realized what he missed out all
these years and how much fun and important it was to be back to where he really belonged.
“Shriya honey, what’s wrong - we are getting late for our IPL game”
“Bharath, I cannot take this anymore. I want to go back to the US”
“What, why? This was
your idea, remember? And I am so
thankful for you making me move here”
“Yea, I know, but this city is not cosmopolitan enough for
me”
“What are you talking about? - You are from Luknow for god
sakes!”
“No, I miss Los Angeles.
Moreover, there are always some relatives at our home. There is no alone time for us anymore. Also your Mom visits us way too frequently
these days. I miss the pollution and
noise free environment. And don’t get me
started on the traffic here. I want to
move there next month”
“But your cousin’s Sagaai is next month. We have to be here Shriya.”
“Forget Sagaai, I
am already planning my next summer vacation in Hawaii!”
And then they fought happily ever after.
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