Author: R.K. Narayan
Source: October 1985 issue of Frontline

At the American Consulates the visa issuing section is kept busy
nowadays as more and more young men seek the Green Card or profess to go
on a student visa and many try to extend their stay once they get in.
The official handles a difficult task while filtering out the
"permanents" and letting in only the "transients". The average American
himself is liberal-minded and doesn't bother that more Indian engineers
and doctors are swamping the opportunities available in the country
possibly to the disadvantage of the American candidate himself.

I discussed the subject with Prof. Ainslee Embree of Columbia
University who has had a long association with Indian affairs and
culture. His reply was noteworthy. "Why not Indians as well? In
course of time they will be Americans. The American citizen of today
was once an expatriate, a foreigner who had come out of a European or
African country. Why not from India too? We certainly love to have
Indians in our country."

There are however, two views on this subject. The elderly parents of
Indians settled in America pay a visit to them, from time to time (on
excursion round ticket), and feel pleased at the prosperity of their
sons or daughters in America. After a Greyhound tour of the country and
a visit to Niagara, they are ready to return home when the suburban
existence begins to bore them whether at New Jersey, or The Queens or
the Silicon Valley neighborhood of California. But they always say on
their return, "After all our boys are happy there. Why should they come
back to this country, where they get no encouragement?"

EXASPERATION

Our young man who goes out to the States for higher studies or training,
declares when leaving home, "I will come back as soon as I complete my
course, may be two years or a little more, but I will definitely come
back and work for our country, and also help our family....." Excellent
intentions, but it will not work that way. Later when he returns home
full of dreams, projects, and plans, he only finds hurdles at every turn
when he tries for a job or to start an enterprise of his own.
Form-filling, bureaucracy, caste and other restrictions, and a generally
feudal style of functioning, exasperate the young man and waste his
time. He frets and fumes as days pass with nothing achieved, while he
has been running around presenting or collecting papers at various
places.

He is not used to this sort of treatment in America, where, he claims,
he could walk into the office of the top man anywhere, address him by
his first name and explain his purpose; when he attempts to visit a man
of similar rank in India to discuss his ideas, he realizes that he has
no access to him, but can only talk to subordinate officials in a
hierarchy. Some years ago a biochemist returning home and bursting with
proposals, was curtly told off by the big man when he innocently pushed
the door and stepped in. "You should not come to me directly, send your
papers through proper channels." Thereafter the young biochemist left
India once for all. having kept his retreat open with the help of a
sympathetic professor at the American end. In this respect American
democratic habits have rather spoilt our young men. They have no
patience with our official style or tempo, whereas an Indian at home
would accept the hurdles as inevitable Karma.

The America-returned Indian expects special treatment, forgetting the
fact that over here chancellors of universities will see only the other
chancellors, and top executives will see only other top executives and
none less under any circumstance. Our administrative machinery is slow,
tedious, and feudal in its operation, probably still based on what they
called the Tottenham Manual, creation of a British administrator five
decades ago.

LACK OF OPENINGS

One other reason for a young man's final retreat from India could also
be attributed to the lack of openings for his particular qualification.
A young engineer trained in robotics had to spend all his hours
explaining what it means, to his prospective sponsors, until he realized
that there could be no place for robots in an over-crowded country.

The Indian in America is a rather lonely being, having lost his roots in
one place and not grown them in the other. Few Indians in America make
any attempt to integrate in American cultural or social life. So few
visit an American home or a theater or an opera, or try to understand
the American psyche. An Indian's contact with the American is confined
to his colleagues working along with him and to an official or seminar
luncheon. He may also mutter a "Hi!" across the fence to an American
neighbor while lawn-mowing. At other times one never sees the other
except by appointment, each family being boxed up in their homes
securely behind locked doors.

After he has equipped his new home with the latest dish-washer, video,
etc., with two cars in the garage and acquired all that the others have,
he sits back with his family counting his blessings. Outwardly happy,
but secretly gnawed by some vague discontent and aware of some inner
turbulence or vacuum, he cannot define which. All the comfort is
physically satisfying, he has immense "job satisfaction" and that is
about all.

ENNUI

On a week-end he drives his family fifty miles or more towards another
Indian family to eat an Indian dinner, discuss Indian politics, or tax
problems (for doctors particularly this is a constant topic of
conversation, being in the highest income bracket). There is monotony
in this pattern of life. so mechanical and standardized.

In this individual, India has lost an intellectual or an expert; but it
must not be forgotten that the expert has lost India too, which is a
more serious loss in the final reckoning.

The quality of life in India is different. In spite of all its
deficiencies, irritations, lack of material comforts and amenities, and
general confusion, Indian life builds up an inner strength. It is
through subtle inexplicable influences (through religion, family ties,
and human relationships in general). Let us call them psychological
"inputs" to use a modern terminology, which cumulatively sustain and
lend variety and richness to existence. Building imposing Indian
temples in America, installing our gods therein and importing Indian
priests to perform the puja and festivals, are only imitative of Indian
existence and could have only a limited value. Social and religious
assemblies at the temples (in America) might mitigate boredom but only
temporarily. I have lived as a guest for extended periods in many
Indian homes in America and have noticed the ennui that descends on a
family when they are stuck at home.

Children growing up in America present a special problem. They have to
develop themselves on a shallow foundation without a cultural basis,
either Indian or American. Such children are ignorant of India and
without the gentleness and courtesy and respect for parents, which forms
the basic training for a child in an Indian home, unlike the American
upbringing whereby a child is left alone to discover for himself the
right code of conduct. Aware of his child's ignorance of Indian life,
the Indian parent tries to cram into the child's little head all
possible information during an 'Excursion Fare' trip to the mother
country.

DIFFERING EMPHASIS

In the final analysis America and India differ basically, though it
would be wonderful if they could complement each other's values. Indian
philosophy lays stress on austerity and unencumbered, uncomplicated
day-to-day living. On the other hand, America's emphasis is on material
acquisitions and a limitless pursuit of prosperity. >From childhood an
Indian is brought up on the notion that austerity and a contended life
is good. and also a certain other- worldliness is inculcated through
the tales a grandmother narrates, the discourses at the temple hall, and
through moral books. The American temperament, on the contrary, is
pragmatic.

INDIFFERENCE TO ETERNITY

The American has a robust indifference to eternity. "Visit the church
on a Sunday and listen to the sermon if you like but don't bother about
the future," he seems to say. Also, "dead yesterday and unborn
tomorrow, why fret about them if today be sweet?" - he seems to echo
Omar Khayyam's philosophy. He works hard and earnestly, and acquires
wealth, and enjoys life. He has no time to worry about the after-life;
he only takes the precaution to draw up a proper will and trusts the
Funeral Home around the corner to take care of the rest. The Indian who
is not able to live on this basis wholeheartedly, finds himself in a
half-way house; he is unable to overcome the inherited complexes while
physically flourishing on the American soil. One may hope that the next
generation of Indians (American-grown) will do better by accepting the
American climate spontaneously or in the alternative return to India to
live a different life.

R. K. NARAYAN
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