yehi hai right choice, baby !
Look at him, sitting back home....he has a good job, started fresh after college, but is now rising through the ranks. He enjoys his life - taking in the best that Bombay seems to offer, first show at the new SRK movie, partying every weekend at Fire, filmi music blasting through his new iPod, racing the new Honda on sea-face.....it seems weird that it was only a couple of years ago that both of us were together in class, doing the same submissions, bunking lectures together - but those days are gone now, and while he wanted to stay back in 'India Shining' , my choice was to try to make it big in the land of oppurtunity, go halfway across the world, like the thousands of students who are lured by the dollar dream.
Life here isnt easy, nor was it supposed to be. With a rupee which trades at fifty to a dollar, things can seem prohibitively expensive. Just a semesters fees are enough wipe out any money we might have saved. And for us, brought up like kings at home, independence is the name of the game. A year of graduate study at an american school is more than enough to test your mettle, night-outs before submissions, late night shifts clearing tables and sorting printouts, studing hard for that elusive A which almost always manages to avoid us, taking care of the house and the bills and the cooking; the going has gotten tough, but even the tough may not get going. It becomes one struggle after another - the joy of graduation brings a reality check on the job scene, and the euphoria of getting selected comes with the worries of the visa. The first car is a precursor to frequent trips to the garage, and the arrival of the credit card is a license to start spending, till the first statement comes in the mail. We did have our good times, those cake fights, late night movies and the occassional trip to the falls, but now they seem to be distant memories. Friends have moved on, and the cellfone can never be a substitute for a roommate. Slowly that doubt has creeped in, if we had done the right thing - maybe it would have been better to have stayed at home, and lived a better life.
Looking back, this experience has made me independent - taught me to face life with its ups and downs, never losing my smile at the end of it. I dont know if I ever learnt anything at school, but I am a wiser person today for what I learnt off it. I dont see my family every day, but I have some of the best people in the world whom I can call my friends, people whom I can trust my life with. These are people whom I would have never known if I had never come here. I do miss the food back home, but I have learnt to recreate a bit of the magic myself. I dont know what my degree has taught me, nor do I care, because I have learnt the meaning of life in these last three years. Ask me, in hindsight, would I have come here, to relive this experience? yup, u bet i would!
Life here isnt easy, nor was it supposed to be. With a rupee which trades at fifty to a dollar, things can seem prohibitively expensive. Just a semesters fees are enough wipe out any money we might have saved. And for us, brought up like kings at home, independence is the name of the game. A year of graduate study at an american school is more than enough to test your mettle, night-outs before submissions, late night shifts clearing tables and sorting printouts, studing hard for that elusive A which almost always manages to avoid us, taking care of the house and the bills and the cooking; the going has gotten tough, but even the tough may not get going. It becomes one struggle after another - the joy of graduation brings a reality check on the job scene, and the euphoria of getting selected comes with the worries of the visa. The first car is a precursor to frequent trips to the garage, and the arrival of the credit card is a license to start spending, till the first statement comes in the mail. We did have our good times, those cake fights, late night movies and the occassional trip to the falls, but now they seem to be distant memories. Friends have moved on, and the cellfone can never be a substitute for a roommate. Slowly that doubt has creeped in, if we had done the right thing - maybe it would have been better to have stayed at home, and lived a better life.
Looking back, this experience has made me independent - taught me to face life with its ups and downs, never losing my smile at the end of it. I dont know if I ever learnt anything at school, but I am a wiser person today for what I learnt off it. I dont see my family every day, but I have some of the best people in the world whom I can call my friends, people whom I can trust my life with. These are people whom I would have never known if I had never come here. I do miss the food back home, but I have learnt to recreate a bit of the magic myself. I dont know what my degree has taught me, nor do I care, because I have learnt the meaning of life in these last three years. Ask me, in hindsight, would I have come here, to relive this experience? yup, u bet i would!
posted by Praveer @ 7:19 PM
5 Comments:
Well said pravs. Most often I have read articles where people only cry about the hardships in US as a student. But I never understood the very essence of expecting an easy life. Maybe the life back at home under the shelter of our parents was an easy one.. but that does not necessairly make that the standard by default.
It doesnt matter whether its USA or India or anywhere else.. unless one is willing to venture out of the safety of the "known" surroundings and ready to see what lies beyond.. no matter how hard or easy or surprising or shocking it is... without having anything else but his/her own resolve to fall back on.. one cannot hope to experience this beautiful thing called life with all its glories and grossness.
and it is this journey that helps us know who we really are.. and as you said.. it would be foolish to regret the choices we made that led us here!
I can completely relate to this.
With all the newness, hardships, doing-things-by-urself, fun, parties, etc. the various pros & cons.
At the end of the day if asked "would I have come here, to relive this experience?"
Yup...Would surely like to experience this facet of life too.
A choice is right, until and unless you don't regret about it. Even when you just begin to regret about your choices, the minute you start accepting the reality, facing life as it is and not pondering over what you could have done instead of choosing this one, then you would realise that there was no choice... You should say you are happy with what you have done...satisfied...rather than repenting over all that you don't have or you could have probably done.
I too chose to come to US...And today, I feel that I have lived my life in the past 3 years...I may have not got a chance so soon, to be this independent and open-minded if I had stayed back...I may have not experienced these innumerable night-outs, days when I had to wipe my own tears, such a friendship where friends are more than a family to me, such celebrations where we cut a cake for every little achievement of our friends or the tiniest occassion, etc...
Today, I don't regret and so I would say, there was no choice for me...and Yehi hai only choice baby!
will add that in the 2 years in US .. I have noticed more change in and around me than i have noticed in almost all my undergraduate years
Nice one pravs!
Though rough and tough, I think these few years as students in USA were crucially necessary for us! It made us appreciate the privileges we were born with that we just never realized!!
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