When an Indian professional
becomes a 'Non-Resident Indian' in the United States, he soon
starts suffering from a strange disease. The symptoms are a
fixture of restlessness, anxiety, hope and nostalgia. The
virus is a deep inner need to get back home. Like Shakespeare
said, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." The
medical world has not coined a word for this malady. Strange
as it is, it could go by a stranger name, the "X + 1"
syndrome.
To understand this disease better, consider
the background. Typically middle-class, the would be migrant's
sole ambition through school is to secure admission into one
of those heavily government subsidised institutions - the
IITs. With the full backing of a doting family and a good deal
of effort, he achieves his goal. Looking for fresh worlds to
conquer, his sights rest on the new world. Like lemmings to
the sea, hordes of IIT graduates descend on the four US
consulates to seek the holiest of holy grails - the F-1
(student) stamp on the passport. After crossing the visa
hurdle and tearful farewell, our hero departs for the Mecca of
higher learning, promising himself and his family that he will
return some day - soon! The family proudly informs their
relatives of each milestone - his G.P.A., his first car
(twenty years old), his trip to Niagara Falls (photographs),
his first winter (parkas, gloves). The two years roll by and
he graduates at the top of his class. Now begins the 'great
hunt' for a company that will not only give him a job but also
sponsor him for that 3" X 3" grey plastic, otherwise known as
the Green Card. A US company sensing a good bargain offers him
a job. Naturally, with all the excitement of seeing his first
pay check in four digit dollars, thoughts of returning to
India are far away. His immediate objective of getting the
Green Card is reached within a year.
Meanwhile, his family back home worry about
the strange American influences (and more particularly, AIDS).
Through contacts they line up a list of eligible girls from
eligible families and wait for the great one's first trip
home. Return he does, at the first available opportunity, with
gifts for the family and mouth-watering tales of prosperity
beyond imagination. After interviewing the girls, he picks the
most likely (lucky) one to be Americanised. Since the major
reason for the alliance is his long-term stay abroad, the
question of his immediate return does not arise. Any doubts
are set aside by the 'backwardness' of working life, long
train travel, lack of phones, inadequate opportunities for
someone with hi-tech qualifications, and so on. The newly-weds
return to America with the groom having to explain the system
of arranged marriages to the Americans. Most of them regard it
as barbaric and on the same lines as communism. The
tongue-tied bride is cajoled into explaining the bindi and
saree. Looking for something homely, the couple plunges into
the frenetic expatriate week-end social scene compromising
dinners, videos of Hindi/regional films, shopping at Indian
stores, and bhajans. Initially, the wife misses the warmth of
her family, but the presence of washing machines, vacuum
cleaners, daytime soap operas and the absence of a domineering
mother-in-law helps. Bits of news filtering through from
India, mostly from returning Indians, is eagerly lapped up.
In discussions with friends, the topic of
returning to India arises frequently but is brushed aside by
the lord and master who is now rising in the corporate world
and has fast moved into a two garage home - thus fulfilling
the great American Dream. The impending arrival of the first
born fulfills the great Indian Dream. The mother-in-law
arrives in time: after all, no right thinking parent would
want their off-spring to be born in India if offered the
American alternative. With all material comforts that money
can bring, begins the first signs of un-easiness - a feeling
that somehow things are not what they should be. The craze for
exotic electronic goods, cars and vacations have been
satiated. The week-end gatherings are becoming routine.
Faced with a mid-life crisis, the upwardly
mobile Indian's career graph plateu's out. Younger and more
aggressive Americans are promoted. With one of the periodic
mini recessions in the economy and the threat of a hostile
take-over, the job itself seems far from secure. Unable or
unwilling to socialize with the Americans, the Indian retreats
into a cocoon. At the home front,the children have grown up
and along with American accents have imbibed American habits
(cartoons, hamburgers) and values (dating). They respond to
their parents' exhortation of leading a clean Indian way of
life by asking endless questions.
The generation gap combines with the cultural
chasm. Not surprisingly, the first serious thoughts of
returning to India occur at this stage. Taking advantage of
his vacation time, the Indian returns home to 'explore'
possibilities. Ignoring the underpaid and beaurocratic
government sector, he is bewildered by the 'primitive' state
of the private sector. Clearly overqualified even to be a
managing director/chairman he stumbles upon the idea of being
an entrepreneur. In the seventies, his search for an arena to
display his business skills normally ended in poultry farming.
In the eighties, electronics is the name of the game.
Undaunted by horror stories about government red tape and
corruption he is determined to overcome the odds - with one
catch. He has a few things to settle in the United States.
After all, you can't just throw away a lifetime's work. And
there are things like taxation and customs regulations to be
taken note of. Pressed for a firm date, he says confidently
'next year' and therein lies our story. The next years come
and go but there is no sign of our McCarthian friend. In other
words if 'X' is the current year, then the objective is to
return in the 'X + 1' year. Since 'X' is a changing variable,
the objective is never reached. Unable to truly melt in the
'Great Melting Pot', chained to his cultural moorings and
haunted by an abject fear of giving up an accustomed standard
of living, the Non-Resident Indian vacillates and oscillates
between two worlds in a twilight zone. Strangely, this malady
appears to affect only the Indians - all of our Asian brethren
from Japan, Korea and even Pakistan - seem immune to it.
- Source: soc.culture.indian
newsgroup
The views of this column are the author's own, and do
not necessarily represent the views of NRI
Online.
