Eastwards Ho!

The attraction of America as a land of green bucks is passe, writes Shalini Narang in California Diary.

My seven-year old daughter is privy to conversations and deliberations on moving back to India between me and my husband and when we meet our friends.

She has also seen moving trucks at homes of friends and made frequent trips to the airport to bid adieu to some of her friends who have moved back to India with families for good. She asks or more aptly checks with me regularly: "Will we move too."

My answer is elusive at best. I don't know and can't say for sure. My mind and heart are at perpetual conflict. The out flux by known people makes one sit up and think.

There is much to pull me back and much to keep me back.

Though e-mails, chats, economic phone cards and web cams have made transmission with family and friends cost effective and faster, yet I miss the feel, the flavour and the fervour of personal touch, the tête-à-tête and the small talks of everyday life in India. The home cooked meals by moms are irreplaceable and no massage chairs can provide the comfort of the soothing touch of a mater's hand on the forehead after a long and exhausting day.

Undoubtedly, the rapid strides in the information technology have widened the communication channels as never before and bridged the distance gaps.

The economic resurgence in India has made the much-famed American Dream a global phenomenon. The attraction of America as a land of green bucks is passé. The strides in the software and information technology enabled services have added India on the map of lands considered as El Dorado.

This summer, a few of our friends returned to the Bay Area on summer sojourns.

Almost all commented on the relaxed pace of life in India due to domestic helps. "We are not stressed out running from task to task," commented one. The ubiquitous Laxmis, Ratis and Sheilas are a big boon for the newly returned Indians. In the similar vein, drivers to drive children to school and extracurricular programmes, home delivery of groceries and other necessities are some of the other elucidated attractions. Unlike in America, easy and cost effective help to handle daily chores is a big boon and relief from routine and rigorous day-to-day chores makes everyday life more relaxed and stress free.

Unpaid and guilt-free family support for raising children is another additional incentive quoted by many as one of the big attractions.

The ease in the grasp of multiple languages by children is an inbuilt incentive of life in India. In America, love for Indian lingoes and culture has to be consciously nurtured via the regimen of formal classes.

I prod and ponder. What does America mean for me and what keeps me here? It is definitely not lucre but a lifestyle choice.

America for me is a land offering me a shot at independent living versus interdependent living. Though on mornings when my husband forgets to do the dishes of the night (which happens fairly regularly) the sink makes me fret and fume and India seems a very attractive destination, yet I am free and my day is not ruled by the coming or not coming of domestic helps.

The choice of independence in life and respect for personal freedom is America's strong attraction. It is also a nation where I can take the basic necessities like water, clean air and electricity for granted.

I am in conflict as are many others.

The progress at grassroots level via smooth supply of basic necessities will catapult India's popularity at the macro level of greater economic investment and development and at the micro level of attracting the likes of me.

Is somebody listening?