A decade ago, there used to be a fight in my house if I heard about any friend or colleague migrating to the land of opportunities. I would almost die with envy, “They are the lucky ones who will live a life of luxury now and, poor me forced to deal with daily problems of insufficient water supply, frequent power cuts, pollution, corruption, need to pull strings for even nursery school admissions, neighbours who are more concerned about your personal problems than their own and daily kitch-kitch in life over petty issues. How to get away from all this?” was the constant struggle in my mind.
Fast forward to 21st century; things have changed in India and so is my mind. Day in and day out I am happily bidding bon voyage to my colleagues who are sent to company headquarters in Atlanta for long term assignments. At times, I wonder where the feeling of envy has disappeared. It has not disappeared, it has just been replaced by another feeling – a feeling of empathy.
“I wonder how they will adjust to a different life now; won’t it be painful for them to say good bye to the life of comfort – comforts of sizzling hot dinner neatly laid on the table when you reach home from work, coziness of sleeping late when your driver drives your kids for early morning tennis class, convenience of leaving your kids with a neighbour when you are dancing your heels off on a Valentine's Day party, bliss of meeting your siblings whenever you wish to, flexibility of spending time with your cousins when they are in town on a weekday (you don’t have to ask them to make their trip only on the weekend and that too inform you two months in advance so that you can block your weekend), your elderly parents having the independence of hiring an auto to roam around in the city, availability of all the international brands in the mall next door and that too within reach.
By the way, did I mention about ample career opportunities and fat… fatter… fattest pay packages? A decade later whenever there is a mention of excellent career opportunities in a foreign land by my husband; there is a fight again in the house. But now I am on the other side of the fence.
