Living in US for an year

Kishore C.S. (December 2001)

I have spent a complete year in US after coming to US in month of December 2000. I wanted to analyze how my life has changed after coming to US and share with people I know in an honest manner. I have not written this with a purpose to influence anyone's thinking towards living in US or living in India. But a honest reflection on my personal experiences.  

 

All opinions are completely personal in following sentences. 

I have done the reflection in whatever way it came to my mind, by letting my mind think freely. 

 

Work: Main purpose of coming to US was 'change of work'. Since I have carefully chosen a job that suits me, getting into the new role in new company was not a problem. I had right skill set and attitude to work and last one year I never regretted my career choice. I got enough opportunities to learn, innovate and experiment and that kept me happy. I had similar opportunities when I worked back in India also. I always took initiatives or did something so that my career keeps me happy. 

 

Settling down: Settling down in US with family was achieved faster than I thought. Furnished apartments reduces the need to buy some basic necessities like Refrigerator, Washing Machine. All other household items had to be purchased. Over a period of 6 months I managed to purchase all necessary items necessary for my family and started feeling at home. One important I think in shopping here in US is you have to do 'comparison shopping'. Same item will be sold at different prices in different shops. I was used to the price difference in India too, but the price difference is much higher and it took some time for me to grasp. If you don't realize this often you will regret your shopping experience, when you realize that the item you bought can be obtained for a cheaper price in another shop. 

 

Life is fast paced: I am not exactly referring to how we get busy with our life. Even being in India, I was feeling lacking of time which can be interpreted as 'fast paced' life. The fact that people travel at high speed makes it a different kind of 'fast paced' life here. Traveling at 70 mph in cars is a normal trend in US and when bodies move at such a fast pace, it adds to the 'time crunch' and makes it feel different. It appears most of the time we are just 'zooming' through our life. 

 

Luxury: It is easy to term life in US as luxurious. There is no lack of basic facilities. Though we experienced electrical blackouts (powercuts) a few times it was not once or twice in the year compared to regular powercuts we are used to India. Car which was a luxury in India, is a necessity in US and hence 'owning a car or two' should not be interpreted as leading luxury life. Availability of technology and widespread use of same makes life luxurious, but one needs to spend accordingly also. It is not 'free luxury'. It needed necessary financial investment to acquire the luxury. 

 

Financial Life: Financial life in US as tough as in any other place. Unless one has sound financial management, surviving in US is as difficult as in India. Read article: Cost of Living for more details

 

Family Life: Has family life made a difference? Yes to some extent. Because of the relative luxury the things we do here is completely different what we used to do in India. In some cases it is more driven by circumstances. We get same time to spend with family (a few hours after reaching home from work).

Weather: Fortunately weather in state of california is not so cold and weather suited us

Geography: Learning American Geography is has been a different experience. If you take city of Hyderabad, it is quite a big city and all sub areas like Dilsukhnagar, Koti still form part of Hyderbad city. But here each city is small. You will find cities in higher number and sometimes equal the our Dilsukhnagar or a colony in a city in India. 

Entertainment: In India watching Telugu/Hindi channels was a major entertainment. In US watching telugu movies/Hindi movies on Video is major entertainment. This fact enabled us to watch more movies in this one year in US than all the movies we watched in 5 years in India.

 

Loneliness: Sometimes it gets lonely here. With very few of our relatives around and within reach, it feels a bit lonely here compared to India. Though we build relationships with friends and neighbors everyone has their OWN preferences when it comes to personal life. If you have 'partying' kind of attitude you can celebrate all occasions and get to spend time with others. Otherwise most of the times you are ON YOUR OWN.

 

Feeling of alien: Though US is a very friendly place, I sometimes feel 'alien' in this land. A feeling that 'I do not belong here' comes up at some strange moments. I don't know why I feel that way and I cannot find an answer also.

 

Getting used to American Media/TV: This was one of the tough tasks. Increased exposure to violence and sex on TV is a problem after coming here. We take all the care necessary to switch channels when our daughter is around with TV shows that are not suitable for her. One major difference in News Media, is every small item gets 'focused'. A normal newspaper heading in US is bigger than the biggest heading I have seen in India. I am used to a style of heading in Indian newspapers. Largest font is used for Major events like 'Assassination of a leader' or 'An Earthquake that killed thousands' or some similar event. And relatively smaller font is used for crime and other items. Here every heading is bigger than largest font I have seen in India. I used to give those heading same importance as I was giving in India. After sometime I got used to 'new dimensions' of fonts and I was able to distinguish between important and routine headings. Still I get confused sometimes.  Even TV news coverage is so extensive compared to one/two daily news bulletins I am used to in India. I had to get used to this also.

 

Economy news gets high focus and I too got caught up with economy trends and started creating fears in me. When the stock market was going down, I used to feel like World is coming to an end. I finally got used to it and now I don't react to market trends and try my best to keep my mind focused on my job and my life. At one time I was getting disturbed and I wrote this article 'Views on Stockmarket'.

 

Spiritual Life: 

Festivals: I miss celebrating the festivals the way we used to do in India. We end up going to work on those days and the day no much different from other days and festival goes by without the usual festivity

 

Temples: This is one aspect I cherished a lot in India - visiting temples frequently. I only get to visit nearby temples once in a month.

Spirituality is a personal affair. One can practice spirituality anywhere. Though life in America is termed as more materialistic, it also has the 'spiritual dimension'. I got to cherish my personal spiritual practices in a regular manner and that gives me some happiness. 

Summary:

If someone is to ask me blindly "you have come to US last year, Are you more happy after coming to US than you were in India?" I would say I cannot answer in a simple 'Yes or No' manner. Answering such a question is not easy as answering 'do you like the movie?' which you can answer as Yes Or No. But not when it comes to your life. Right?

I am neither completely happy nor unhappy with living in US as I have mixed feelings. I came to US with an open mind to accept the culture and life here without complaining. So I am doing pretty decent and what I shared above are the mixed feelings I have experienced in last one year.

Even when I stayed in India, I never complained about my life there and I was in similar 'state of happiness'. Having a right attitude towards living life is important than saying "I wish I was in US" OR "I wish I stayed back in India". "Take life as it comes and live with right attitude" is very important to me and that is what exactly I am doing now and will continue to do in future. 

Moving to a different country always has a big shift in CULTURE and getting used to new culture and living life there is a challenge we should also be prepared. It is with this attitude I adopted and overall I am content with my life in the same fashion I was back in India.