yaamerica ?

My Dad studied and worked in California. He wanted to settle in the U.S...though some family issues brought him back to Coimbatore.He'd always tell me ..run off abroad for college..you'll never want to come back. Life's easier and better there...settle there.
(I still get mails every morning saying the same thing)
I've always wondered...why it is so “voo yaamerica” (or any other country for that matter..this is just the most common one and funner to say )

This is a very common scenario...
"You know she got married to that guy from the US?"
.."Wow"...really...damn good yea...she must be really happy"
"Yea...yea..of course ...(goes without saying no)...”
I have two cousins who studied and are now working in the US..I don’t think anyone in the family knows which University they went to, or where they work..but it's like "wow..they went there to study and now settled there also..so nice.."..,

I have/had travelled quite a bit, within India and abroad and I know it's fascinating ...clean...the big malls..crazy shopping..big brands..wide roads..lovely beaches..museums..zoos..huge night clubs. Left me always wondering if that would be reason or motivation enough to leave where you where brought up from and just start new .
Every time I heard people say..."you know I went to blah blah country ...and it was so wow.."
I’d end up having this huge argument about how they just haven’t travelled to the best places in India and just "simply talk"..Like honestly..I've heard and seen from pictures that places up north like Leh, ladakh, kashmir, Himalayas, Rishikesh are very pretty. I've been to Coorg, Kerala ,Goa.. too many times and have thought they are extremely beautiful, serene and clean.

Im in Calgary, Canada now.I've been here like 4 weeks, slowly beginning to see what people really mean. I've never had life easier. Im not talking in terms of like missing home, family, friends but just convenience.It took me 6 months-one year to learn the bus routes, train routes in Madras .I already know most of them here.Everything is made such that parents with kids in prams and the handicapped can use them as easily as we do. They have special buses and taxies for seniors.In every station/Bus terminal you have such a neat map with I think even the uneducated can use.

The whole University including residence is Wi-fied and help is available from 8am to 8pm to fix anything that happens to your computer for free.I’m not even going to describe the library system. It's really fascinating. Like I just need to type my topic in, like key words and it will tell me which book, floor, author, shelf, row.I have homosexuals in class who are open about it and it's no big deal. (I still tend to gape a little...think in another 2 months I should be cool)
People are so unbelievably friendly, I don’t think I've heard so many "sorry, thank you's and please" in the last 5 years. Every time I've been lost or stuck somewhere and I ask for directions I've had someone come with me till I can at least see the building .(with a smiley face)

Yesterday I went down to do my laundry for the first time.
They have something known as the "smart card”...you shove it into a machine and using your credit card or coins you add value to the smart card.
Then there's a room with 20 odd washers and driers. You put your clothes in & go back in 45 min and it's done. Dry, unwrinkled clothes in your hand.
I swear it felt like magic.

As opposed to, in Rani Meyyamai. We used to take clothes down every week into the laundry room where they'll be 100 odd people with one warden trying to calm everyone down,
She'd give the us, ONE marker, we would write our room numbers somewhere on the tag of t-shirt or kurta, then wait n a queue, there'll be a note book where you write
Room number:
T-shirts : (how many)
Jeans :
Towels :
Total Number:_______

Apart from this, you needed to have your own record of it cause clothes got misplaced very often. Thanks to that all my kurtas either have 93 or 88 on them.
The clothes might take one week or three weeks, you could just pray you didn’t need them.


I can’t help wonder just what one of these students would do if they had to study in a college in India.It's hard to not like it here.
I know I can never settle abroad as such cause there's just too much of India within me.
I feel like im going for a costume party everyday in my boots, mufflers, jacket and gloves.
I’m called "muntes" from "megras"...which is hard and weird to start reacting to initially..."mumu" is catching up though. :)
I like it here but every morning, I wake up wishing I was back in Madras.
I hate the time difference and look at makemytrip often to see what the cheapest price for me to go back to my veedu is.

But it's a good change from anything I've done before and I know it's going to mould me into a better, smarter person and give me more direction and confidence. I’m starting to look at things differently, I want to travel more, see, do new things and meet new people.
I'll have fun-er stories to tell my kids.

And while I'm at that, I definitely not going to categorise people moving/settling abroad as just "small talk" or "they haven’t seen India enough" or whatever you want to call it.

I’m not necessarily saying that convenience and an open society is equal to happiness...but it's definitely a something to start with…