HERE & THERE

A couple of days back, I read about the death of an India student in UK, killed by strangers while on picnic with friends.

There had been many similar stories from Australia over the last years. In the beginning of the year, I remember reading the story of an Indian Student being killed and his body put in a sack and abandoned elsewhere. I knew this boy from his younger years as he was senior to my daughter in local Bhavan’s School. Son of a clerk working in a Hospital in the city, this brilliant boy went to IIT, Madras before going to US for higher studies. It is yet to be known on why he was killed.

There could be many reasons for Indian students becoming victims in distant lands. It could be racial issues, jealousy, love tangle, rivalries due to academic/professional matters or many other reasons. However it is very heart wrenching to hear stories like this.

The fact of the matter is that one is not safe in somebody’s land. These places do offer best higher education, excellent living conditions and possibly, the best of employment. But, howsoever the immigrant tries, he simply cannot truly merge with the total culture and traditions. The color of the skin, the language that one speaks and the living practices that he follows; make one stand out, mostly as a sore thumb. An African, an Indian, a Chinese, a Sikh all are so stereotypical that, they become butt of ridicule and humiliation for the locals and there is definitely discrimination. It could be very depressing.

Why do we need to speak about other nations? It is being practiced so lavishly here in India too. I remember staying and working in Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab & Haryana, in addition to being a union territory. My skin color and my language stood out and there were many instances that I had undergone discrimination from the hands of locals. There is distinct difference in the features of a north Indian and a south Indian. There, I was a Madrasi (for a north Indian, anyone comes from this side of the Vindhya Hills is a Madrasi), a ‘kala admi’ (black man) and someone who landed in those part of the world for the sake a livelihood. What more are needed to treat him as an outcast? Some of the experiences had gone so deep into my psyche that when I was working for the country’s leading computer company in Delhi, I was offered to be sent to California, USA on a job transfer, I refused it. My HR director called me a strange being to refuse a job in USA, the land of uncle Sam that everyone loves to settle down and of course, a land of plenty of opportunities. Instead I resigned from the job and returned to my home State to start the life of an entrepreneur.

One is in peace only when he is comfortable. Having worked in Delhi, Chandigarh and Bangalore, I have never felt comfortable in any of these places. This is an innate, internal feeling. To add to that is the discomfort when you are restricted to socialise only with your own family. After coming back to my own home State, I not only did grow professionally but socially too.

After having traversed this far in life, I am convinced that peace and happiness are the paramount things that one must aspire for. To enable that to happen one must be extremely in harmony with oneself and the surroundings.

And being in own place with own people, one derives that comfort.