Engineer. A Bitter Reality: As the dream of most parents I
had acquired a degree in
Software Engineering and
joined a company based in USA,
the land of braves and
opportunity. When I arrived in the USA, it
was as if a dream had come
true. Here at last I was in the place
where I want to be. I decided I
would be staying in this country
for about Five years in which
time I would have earned
enough money to settle down in India. My father was a government
employee and after his
retirement, the only asset he
could acquire was a decent one
bedroom flat. I wanted to do some thing
more than him. I started feeling
homesick and lonely as the time
passed. I used to call home and
speak to my parents every
week using cheap international phone cards. Two years passed,
two years of Burgers at
McDonald's and pizzas and
discos and 2 years watching the
foreign exchange
rate getting happy whenever the Rupee value went down. Finally I
decided to get married.
Told my parents that I have
only 10 days of holidays and
everything must be done
within these 10 days. I got my
ticket booked in the cheapest flight. Was jubilant and was
actually enjoying hopping for
gifts for all my friends back
home. If I miss anyone then
there will be talks. After
reaching home I spent home one week going through all the
photographs of girls and as the
time was getting shorter I was
forced to select one candidate. In-laws told me, to my surprise,
that I would have to get
married in 2-3 days, as I will
not get anymore holidays. After
the marriage, it was time to
return to USA, after giving some money to my parents and
telling the neighbors to look
after them, we returned to USA. My wife enjoyed this country
for about two months and then
she started feeling lonely. The
frequency of calling India
increased to twice in a week
sometimes 3 times a week. Our savings started diminishing. After two
more years we
started to have kids. Two lovely
kids, a boy and a girl, were
gifted to us by the almighty.
Every time I spoke to my
parents, they asked me to come to India so that they can see
their grand-children. Every year I decide to go to
India. But part work part
monetary conditions prevented
it. Years went by and visiting
India was a distant dream.
Then suddenly one day I got a message that my parents were
seriously sick. I tried but I
couldn't get any holidays and
thus could not go to India. The
next message I got was my
parents had passed away and as there was no one to do the
last rights the society members
had done whatever they could.
I was depressed. My parents
had passed away without
seeing their grand children. After couple more years passed
away, much to my children's
dislike and my wife's joy we
returned to India to settle
down. I started to look for a
suitable property, but to my dismay my savings were short
and the property prices had
gone up during all these years. I
had to return to the USA. My wife refused to come back
with me and my children
refused to stay in India. My 2
children and I returned to USA
after promising my wife I
would be back for good after two years. Time passed by, my daughter
decided to get married to an
American and my son was
happy living in USA. I decided
that
had enough and wound-up every thing and returned to
India. I had just enough money
to buy a decent 02 bedroom flat
in a well-developed locality. Now I am 60 years old and the
only time I go out of the flat is
for the routine visit to the
nearby temple. My faithful wife
has also left me and gone to the
holy abode. Sometimes I wondered was it
worth all this? My father, even after staying in
India, had a house to his name
and I too have the same
nothing more. I lost my parents and children
for just ONE EXTRA BEDROOM. Looking out from the window I
see a lot of children dancing.
This damned cable TV has
spoiled our new generation and
these children are losing their
values and culture because of it. I get occasional cards from my
children asking I am alright.
Well at least they remember
me.
