Being an Indian in America

Two months passed by ever since I landed in the US. As every other alien landing in this country, I am now undergoing the transition cycle. After completing the immigration at the JFK airport, I had to go to some other terminal to catch my flight to San Francisco. It was hard to believe when someone told me that I need to catch a train to get to the other terminal. The first fascination would occur when you come out of the airport and see the roads. From then on, it happens every now and then whenever you see something new.

A transition happens in course of time which prepares you to accommodate yourself with the American lifestyle.

The first and foremost thing would be the multiplication math. With our parsimonious mindset, shopping becomes a terrible thing. Whenever you intend to buy something, you multiply it with forty, compare it with Indian money and ultimately end up buying nothing.

The way you dress up is more important in this country. When you wear tight shirts (which are famously called as short shirts back in India) t.shirts or tight pants, you will be labelled as a 'gay'. Also, guys got to be wary about choosing colors. Any pink shade or girlish color should strictly be avoided. Guys generally wear very loose dresses here. Gals dress up the other way round, obviously :D You can see the "dangerously low-waist" jeans which people wear below their waist. It would be a thriller to watch them walking as you never know when is it gonna come down!

One can never really say when the words like “dude”, “buddy”, etc surreptitiously enters your vocabulary and you start using them quite often. You get to see a variety of people here - almost people from all parts of the world can be spotted. Mexicans, Chinese and Desis(Indians living away from home) are most common, while in Desis there is another category. They are called as the ABCD - American Born Confused Desis. Well, they are really confused as to which way to lead their lives - Indian or American. When you start calling a fellow Indian as “Desi”, then you are almost done with the first phase of transition.

You always try to be disciplined, at least pretend rather. Self-discipline is kind of enforced here, so you have no choice but to be like that. For instance, when you open a door and enter somewhere, you cannot bang the door on the face of the person following you. You got to wait for him and hold the door until he gets inside.

Then comes the choice of food. Unlike people’s imaginations, it is not a next to impossible task to survive as a vegetarian in here. There are always choices to make and it purely depends on the individual. Even in remote places where the Indian population is low, you can definitely locate a Indian grocery store somewhere around. If you are very keen to stick to the “vegetarianism”, it is very much possible. If you decide to cut loose, chicken burgers and hamburgers are always inviting.

Drinking is a social habit here and a party without drinks is never called a party. My jaws dropped and eyeballs popped out when I first saw Desi gals(am already done with the transition… he he) drinking in a party. But then, this is America. Again, this also is not a “must-cultivate” kind of culture once you step into the US. By now, so many people have challenged me that I could not remain a teetotaller anymore. I have gleefully accepted the challenge and living up to it.

USA is a land of choices – You can live the way you want. When you catch up a new habit here, you are totally responsible for it and definitely cannot put the blame to the society or people or the culture. People talking about the imposing situations which made them to drink or smoke are timorous of accepting their fault. One cannot cite a typical situation as a reason which made him drink. Situations can never be so compelling, coz they are created by us, after all!