We close our eyes and see a picture of friends and family in our best times. The picture stays so long and its a bitter pill to accept the reality. It’s so hard for us to see the changes of life as they happen. Girls get married; Guys are chasing careers in the Metros or Overseas. There are literally none of our buddies back in our hometowns. Each one lives in a different part of the world. Things seem to gradually fade as they rarely get in touch with us. But as friends we are not meant to demand but understand each other!! Everyone goes through those phases and we are in each other’s shoes sometime.
But what is it to our Dad’s and Mom’s at home?? Err… they said all is well the last time I spoke to them; in fact they say it every time I speak to them! So was this the way when we were back at home? NO, not really. Something somewhere goes wrong every now and then. Unfortunate events happen. Parents get sick, Siblings meet with accidents and Relatives are dead! We wouldn’t know what’s really happening as they don’t want us to know all of it. Because be it New York or Bangalore, we are just not with them and they are too cautious about saying anything that worries us. It continues for years as we keep chasing our career and aspirations so hard and by the end of it we have to regret for leaving our families behind.
Diwali, Christmas or Ramzan is just another day in all our lives now. Not everyone knows the struggle of calculating every dime and minute to make a trip back home! Visa status, vacation leave, project deadline, graduation, summer elective what not? Life seems to get busy and we forget our regular calls, miss weddings, funerals, anniversaries and birthdays. And all that takes is just a “Sorry” to move on. But in most times it’s quite hard to understand what the people at home go through. Depending on the kind of relationship, we seldom try to make an effort to make them feel better.
Diwali, Christmas or Ramzan is just another day in all our lives now. Not everyone knows the struggle of calculating every dime and minute to make a trip back home! Visa status, vacation leave, project deadline, graduation, summer elective what not? Life seems to get busy and we forget our regular calls, miss weddings, funerals, anniversaries and birthdays. And all that takes is just a “Sorry” to move on. But in most times it’s quite hard to understand what the people at home go through. Depending on the kind of relationship, we seldom try to make an effort to make them feel better.
So finally I get to those NRI’s (Non-returning Indians). A lot of them have made a decision to stay out of their home country even before they stepped in their foreign lands. That’s awesome!! Thanks to Hollywood and western music!! A handful is able to see a home away from home too. Now what does that supposed to mean??? I don’t buy it. The morning bed coffee, the affection when they served my breakfast, the care when I got sick, a casual talk at the dinner table, the open mockery at each other, the laughter with hearts out, dropping my little sis at school to see her wave, chatting for long hours with uncle, taking aunt to the temple, driving my bike in the lonely nights, the useless hours with buddies at "beach" and a lot more is needed to make me feel home! So now I’ve got to either envy them for being able to make a home anywhere they live or pity them for having forgotten what a real home feels like.
Guess a few would start grudging now :) So I better stick with ‘Envy’. But the point is spare a thought on things that matter the most. There’s more to life than just a career. There are things that could make us regret later in our life. After all life doesn’t have a rewind button!
