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Do we need Green Card?
J. EDEN ALEXANDER
A lively conversation between two Indian engineers attracted my attention as I was waiting at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for our connecting flight to Chennai recently. One of them was exultant about getting his Green Card, while the other was lamenting over the inordinate delay in its issue.
Their love for this sacred card was obvious. It looked as though their life would become empty without it. I was rather pained to see their blind infatuation for this enchanting card. The question that I asked myself repeatedly was “Is life in America as attractive as these young men think?”
Darker side
After visiting the U.S. four times during the past six years, I am fully convinced that Americans do not enjoy any better life than ours in India. Life there too has its darker side.
It is a well known fact that 9/11 changed American history and its life. No one knows the real objectives. But under the guise of finding out weapons of mass destruction (that did not exist), Iraq was shattered to pieces. The Americans lost their serenity and peace of mind from the day their forces stepped into Iraq.
To fight terrorism, Mr. Bush has brought the life of every one in the U.S. under constant threat. Every small incident such as a boiler burst or a power failure is viewed with suspicion. Security is kept beefed up at all times at all places.
The biggest tragedy is that a passenger cannot carry his toothpaste or liquid medicines beyond a small (inadequate) quantity even in domestic flights in the U.S. with the advent of liquid bombs.
We know what happened in New Orleans. The incidents of rape and looting created more devastation than the hurricane itself when Katrina struck. The Bush administration could only be a silent spectator simply sitting and watching the chaos and lawlessness. On the other hand, not one such incident was reported in India when the tsunami destroyed our coastal villages.
Instead, our deep-rooted values evoked compassion and sympathy for the fellow countrymen and every Indian in relief work exhibited selfless and sacrificial service throughout. New Orleans showed the real colour of America in times of distress. I fail to understand why our people are so crazy about American life most of which is glamorous, hollow and empty.
Misconceptions
Despite employing our software engineers for their survival, the Americans seem to have a very poor opinion about us. Once, as I stood singing ‘Silent Night’ on a Christmas Eve Service in a church in the U.S., watching the lyric projected on a white screen, an American youth next to me whispered with surprise, “How long have you been here?” “For the past two months,” I replied. His next question was painful. “How did you learn English so quickly?”
I waited for the service to be over and told him in unambiguous terms: “Almost all the primary schools in India start teaching English from LKG. No one from India comes to the U.S. to learn English.” He felt sorry for having had a misconception about the Indians. There are many more Americans who have numerous delusions like this.
I am not against our young engineers going to the U.S. to earn, but only averse to their unfounded love for settling in a foreign land leaving their own motherland. The lawlessness among the American children who kill their own classmates in schools should make them think twice before they venture to bring up their own kids in such a country.
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