Charles Haynes wrote: > [My first post using the gmail client on my android phone. It appears to > force me to top post and I can't seem to trim. Sigh. Time to submit a bug > report] > Same thing with Gmail on my bberry. Somebody should tell the Product Managers at Google. ;) > I appreciate your enthusiasm but what is it that draws you back? As an > "outsider" not raised in Indian culture (but appreciates the variety of > experiences the world has to offer) it seems to me that Singapore or Munich > would be preferable. > I came back because I feel I belong here. Everywhere else, I am a foreigner. You'll be surprised how people can change if your skin is a different color. The worst experience was in a mall in Fremont, CA. Somebody once told me CA was the most broadminded state. All that is nonsense. Kentucky treated me better, I think. But I digress. Before I get back to the mainstream discussion, let me state for the record that some of my best friends are not Indian and hence I am not biased against non Indians.
I came back because I told myself even before I left India over a decade ago, that I would come back. I totally loved it in Munich and Darmstadt (I lived there for a while as well). Singapore was very nice, for a short while. Too small, I should say. Seoul was ok, but I could not hold an intelligent conversation with a warm body 80% of the time. We used to run away to Itaewon to "talk" during the weekends. Drinking was just a by product of those meetings. And don't get me started on the garlic. Germany was a pleasure, but the undertones of xenophobia is very evident. Both the East and West coast of the US of A was very good for work. Social life was nonexistent and a support system was missing in our lives. Moreover, we did not want our children to miss out on family. We decided to head back when our daughter was ready for first grade, and we did it slightly ahead of schedule. Why first grade? I think it is about the right time for my kid to have some memories of her early childhood, but not drawn to it so much to spurn her new country of residence. > Are you just indulging in a hyperbolic reaction or can you try to explain it > in a way a non-Indian could understand? Is it family? Culture? Cuisine? > Familiarity? Something else? > Hopefully what I said was non-hyperbolic and made sense to the non-Indians. --Venkat
