Tuesday, November 25, 2008

India Calling

“WHAT are Papa and I doing here?”

These words, instant-messaged by my mother in a suburb of Washington, D.C., whizzed through the deep-ocean cables and came to me in the village where I’m now living, in the country that she left...

Which raises a heart-stirring question: If our parents left India and trudged westward for us, if they manufactured from scratch a new life there for us, if they slogged, saved, sacrificed to make our lives lighter than theirs, then what does it mean when we choose to migrate to the place they forsook?

If we are here, what are they doing there? "


I can't stop thinking about this article, and find it to be quite touching.

I also think there's something to be said about "Third-Culture" and "Second-Culture" kids. Where are our roots? Where do we settle down? In our parents' homeland? In the place(s) we lived when we were younger? Or do we continue the cycle and settle somewhere new and different?

Anyway, you should read the article. It's very well done.

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