Sunday, January 21, 2007
My first ever trip to India after coming to USA
TIME never stops for anyone. I was so excited, so enthusiastic to visit India and see my family after almost one and a half year, had planned and decided so many things about my trip and now I think sitting back in College Station that if it was just a dream that I was with my dad, mom, brother, bhabhi, sheru and friends, sitting with them and sharing each others experiences, laughing together. Everything just went in a flash and now I just have memories of the time I spent with everyone. Sometimes you have to relinquish things which mean so much to you or the things that you want the most for your own livelihood. God has given me so much that I can't even complain for this.
I learnt so many things on my trip to India but the foremost thing I learnt was that Life should go on whether you like or don't like the things happening around you. People have become so busy with their daily routines and wild chase for fulfilling thier dreams that they have got used to forget everything that happens around them.
Well getting out of my emotional shock that I got after reaching College Station, I would like to share my experiences and time spent in India. The whole trip was a real fun for me and it started with a warm welcome by my Dad at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. And surprisingly one of my good friends, Varun Goyal, who now works in a software company in Delhi also came to receive me. Thanks Varun Goyal jee! Seeing mom and dad after so long was a very refreshing feeling for me. As I came back to India after a long stint and getting used to the American way of life, I got some early shocks observing things happening around me. On the way back to home, just getting out of the airport I saw a huge rush of cars, scooters, trucks, buses, cycle, auto rickshaw etc on the same one road. I also saw Delhi-Gurgaon flyover in the same state as I saw
when I left India 17 months ago. Seeing people not following the traffic rules and signals, for once I couldn't believe how they manage to drive in such situation but the very next moment I realised, ohhh....even I used to drive like this some time back. Apart from this, I also observed some aspects of improvement in Delhi as far as the infrastructre is concerned. Now there were flyovers all around, wide roads and the newly introduced metro rail system. One of the reason for all this is that Delhi is hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Throughout my whole trip I kept on hearing from one or the other person that now India is really developing a lot, software people are getting good salaries, by getting a MBA degree one can fetch huge amount of salary packages, now we have this, we have that... but
my question is whether we have been able to provide a good living who were poor, whether we reduced the number of people who were and are below poverty line, whether we have reduced the corruption from society by a huge extent, whether we are making a sufficient effort to provide a basic standard life for each and every citizen of the country. If one goes to small towns, villages and cities and observe things with open eyes then only he/she could figure out how much India is progressing in real sense. In my view, improvement is a relative term. No doubt India is becoming more advanced technologically and emphasis is being given on Infrastructure but are we improving at a good pace. We are focussing on four lane roads every where but the pace we are following by the time the project gets completed our population will also get doubled and then will the four lane prove to be a comfort for driving. Ofcourse not!
I saw big Malls, huge shopping places in big cities and moreover people getting crazy for them but what impact does it have on a common man or a poor person who even doesn't know whether he will get his next meal or not. I am not discouraging anything but I feel our focus is not in the right place. Even a person who is getting Rs.50-60K per month is running for even more not caring about the society. I am not a pessimist but I feel India won't be a leading country until unless each and every citizen has a common objective.
Well, I am a normal person so apart from observing things about India I also enjoyed my stay at home. I met many of my old school and college pals, attended couple of weddings in Jallandhar and Ludhiana, attended a small reunion of my college friends. In between I also happen to meet one of my close friend Ajay and his wife in Jallandhar. He hasn't changed a bit, he's the same Ajay of my old college days. I would like to write a post on my college days as well. Met one of my very good friend that I could ever have Deepak Gadi, along with Preetinder and Kamaldeep in Patiala. I also happen to visit my elder brother and bhabhiji in Bangalore along with my mom and the most interesting part of our journey from Delhi to Bangalore was that we travelled by Bangalore Rajdhani Express. Its a long journey, almost 36 hours for one side but the train took us from undiscovered parts of India which I was haapy to see but the continuous to and fro motion of the passengers when the train is moving bothered me a lot. Well, we all went to Mysore from Bangalore for a day. Played badminton and tennis with big bro during my short stay in Bangalore in which he again defeated me convincingly but I didn't loose the battle completely as I defeated him in the game of Carrom-board. Some salvage for me! hahahaha....Though it was a very short stint at Bangalore but I enjoyed a lot being together with mom, kuku and bhabhiji. I can't finish this post without mentioning about my dog 'Sheru' wh
o is equally important member of our family.
It was really good to have spent time with dad, listening to his thoughts and experiences and about his future plans, then with mom who would shed tears on seeing me leaving her, who would cook really delicious food for me, care for me and will do anything to see me happy. I think parents are the greatest gift God has given to a human being. In all, I had a real good time during my India visit but....Aghaaash....if time could stop for a while!
I learnt so many things on my trip to India but the foremost thing I learnt was that Life should go on whether you like or don't like the things happening around you. People have become so busy with their daily routines and wild chase for fulfilling thier dreams that they have got used to forget everything that happens around them.
Well getting out of my emotional shock that I got after reaching College Station, I would like to share my experiences and time spent in India. The whole trip was a real fun for me and it started with a warm welcome by my Dad at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. And surprisingly one of my good friends, Varun Goyal, who now works in a software company in Delhi also came to receive me. Thanks Varun Goyal jee! Seeing mom and dad after so long was a very refreshing feeling for me. As I came back to India after a long stint and getting used to the American way of life, I got some early shocks observing things happening around me. On the way back to home, just getting out of the airport I saw a huge rush of cars, scooters, trucks, buses, cycle, auto rickshaw etc on the same one road. I also saw Delhi-Gurgaon flyover in the same state as I saw
when I left India 17 months ago. Seeing people not following the traffic rules and signals, for once I couldn't believe how they manage to drive in such situation but the very next moment I realised, ohhh....even I used to drive like this some time back. Apart from this, I also observed some aspects of improvement in Delhi as far as the infrastructre is concerned. Now there were flyovers all around, wide roads and the newly introduced metro rail system. One of the reason for all this is that Delhi is hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Throughout my whole trip I kept on hearing from one or the other person that now India is really developing a lot, software people are getting good salaries, by getting a MBA degree one can fetch huge amount of salary packages, now we have this, we have that... but
my question is whether we have been able to provide a good living who were poor, whether we reduced the number of people who were and are below poverty line, whether we have reduced the corruption from society by a huge extent, whether we are making a sufficient effort to provide a basic standard life for each and every citizen of the country. If one goes to small towns, villages and cities and observe things with open eyes then only he/she could figure out how much India is progressing in real sense. In my view, improvement is a relative term. No doubt India is becoming more advanced technologically and emphasis is being given on Infrastructure but are we improving at a good pace. We are focussing on four lane roads every where but the pace we are following by the time the project gets completed our population will also get doubled and then will the four lane prove to be a comfort for driving. Ofcourse not!I saw big Malls, huge shopping places in big cities and moreover people getting crazy for them but what impact does it have on a common man or a poor person who even doesn't know whether he will get his next meal or not. I am not discouraging anything but I feel our focus is not in the right place. Even a person who is getting Rs.50-60K per month is running for even more not caring about the society. I am not a pessimist but I feel India won't be a leading country until unless each and every citizen has a common objective.
Well, I am a normal person so apart from observing things about India I also enjoyed my stay at home. I met many of my old school and college pals, attended couple of weddings in Jallandhar and Ludhiana, attended a small reunion of my college friends. In between I also happen to meet one of my close friend Ajay and his wife in Jallandhar. He hasn't changed a bit, he's the same Ajay of my old college days. I would like to write a post on my college days as well. Met one of my very good friend that I could ever have Deepak Gadi, along with Preetinder and Kamaldeep in Patiala. I also happen to visit my elder brother and bhabhiji in Bangalore along with my mom and the most interesting part of our journey from Delhi to Bangalore was that we travelled by Bangalore Rajdhani Express. Its a long journey, almost 36 hours for one side but the train took us from undiscovered parts of India which I was haapy to see but the continuous to and fro motion of the passengers when the train is moving bothered me a lot. Well, we all went to Mysore from Bangalore for a day. Played badminton and tennis with big bro during my short stay in Bangalore in which he again defeated me convincingly but I didn't loose the battle completely as I defeated him in the game of Carrom-board. Some salvage for me! hahahaha....Though it was a very short stint at Bangalore but I enjoyed a lot being together with mom, kuku and bhabhiji. I can't finish this post without mentioning about my dog 'Sheru' wh
o is equally important member of our family.It was really good to have spent time with dad, listening to his thoughts and experiences and about his future plans, then with mom who would shed tears on seeing me leaving her, who would cook really delicious food for me, care for me and will do anything to see me happy. I think parents are the greatest gift God has given to a human being. In all, I had a real good time during my India visit but....Aghaaash....if time could stop for a while!
