Long live USA, my second home

Today is the 4th of July, Independence Day of the United States, it's a federal holiday and I am enjoying it in my apartment while writing this post. On July 4th, 1776 USA declared its independence from the UK. I came to this country in 2003 after finishing my education in India, almost 10 years now. This place has been my primary residence since then, I call it my second home. This country is called the land of opportunities, many people around the world dream to visit this country or wish to come and settle in this country for a better life. This country welcomes its visitors or immigrants with open heart, many people come to this country as visitors and then settle here to make it their permanent home (many come legally and unfortunately some enter illegally also). The post is not about the USA or the story of independence, I am trying to look back at my journey so far in this country, my first encounter with this wonderful country and its lovely people.

Before coming to the US I had a very vague idea about this country mostly from what I watched in Hollywood movies or in the news and you can see how naive I was. The first time I saw a real airplane was when I went to Mumbai International Airport to take my flight to the US. I was really excited and also traveling for the first time alone, that too out of the country. My first airplane journey was uneventful except for the first time I ate non-Indian food. It was a Delta flight and they offered Kiwi with lunch, this was the first time I saw it. I didn't know whether to eat it with its skin or peel the skin before eating the fruit, my fellow passenger helped me with this dilemma and showed me how to eat Kiwi. This was just the beginning of many first-in-life things that I was going to witness in this country. I landed at Newark International Airport in New Jersey and passed the immigration check etc. without any problem. Again, this was the first time in my life that I was conversing only in English and didn't speak any Hindi or Marathi for almost 24 hours. My English was manageable but not very fluent (still it's not great but much better compared to what it was 10 years ago) and people at the airport did a great job in understanding all my answers. I boarded the train to go to New Brunswick and it turned out to be the wrong one (which doesn't stop at that station). I had to get off the train at some station and I was shocked to see that there was no one on the platform. People who travel by train in India can understand why I was shocked. It's not possible to imagine an empty platform in India, even at midnight platforms are full of people, and here it was empty at 5 PM! I was the only one with my luggage standing there. Fortunately, one fellow came and I asked him about the next train and how to reach my destination, it took some time for him to understand my English and also for me to understand his (accent problem!) but finally, I boarded the right train and reached my destination. The initial journey itself was very interesting and prepared me for many new things that I was going to encounter.

So far my journey in this country is enjoyable and full of great learning experiences. I learned how to communicate in English. I gave my first public presentation about my research, learned to drive a left-hand drive car, bought my first computer, and also lost my first valuable possession in life when that laptop got stolen from the lab, my first digital camera, the first time I saw a real bathtub and used shower, and many things like this the list is big. But that's not an important part of my experience in the US. I think anyone from a small town visiting this country must have had a similar experience, so even though it was special for me I don't think there is anything unique in it. What I like most about this country is the attitude of its people and their culture. Yes, the US as a country does have its own culture. Somehow I had an impression (and many people in India also think like this) that only old civilizations like India, China, and Romans have their own culture and Western civilizations are all about money, and physical comforts and don't have their own culture or traditions. But I realized that it's not true, the reason for the phenomenal success of this country in many fields is because of its work ethics, social and economic policies, and culture. I can only compare things with my own country as I didn't stay in any other country. Some things that impressed me are religion and law are separate here, and no one is treated differently just because of their religion. The social status and financial independence of women are much better compared to India. People are more tolerant towards each other's views, it's not that they don't have difference of opinion (just listen to any debate on TV you will get an idea) but I never heard of any communal riot in the US. They don't kill each other because of differences of opinion (at least in their own country). The quality of primary education in public schools is amazing and it is free for everyone. Reading, one of my favorite hobbies is valued tremendously in schools and society. I just love the public library system here. People read a lot that's why books are also produced in that proportion. One can get almost any book from any country if one wants to read it, the book collection of many university libraries is amazing. I started reading English and Hindi books after coming here otherwise I only used to read Marathi books. 

There are many things that I learned here and they helped me to become a better person. My Indian upbringing taught me many good things and this country added so many other valuable things to my personality. Coming to the US was definitely a turning point in my life and I believe all my experience here has definitely contributed to making me a better person. I really thank this country, all my amazing friends in this country who directly or indirectly taught me a lot of things and its people.

Thanks for reading, your comments are welcome.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)