Saturday, April 19, 2008

In the few minutes that I scrounged after the meeting, I reached the garden back home, where the first thing I saw was the badam, broken, snapped into two, twig-like, by lightening and the windstorm or so they say; but the asopalav were all right, they could bend to the force of the gale.

The lady in the seat behind mine was traveling with her young sons, all the way to Toronto, this evidently was her first flight ever, she was moving bag and baggage, on permanent resident visa to a land she’d never seen, a language she didn’t know, new people and a new life, and I wonder what is it in our genes that makes us pack up and move, and makes some stay put, come hell or high water.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

THE badam broke?!

Anonymous said...

Ah, how sad about the tree. We have six foot douglas fir branch that broke last night and barely missed the house. Flying down from 80ft, such a branch could kill a person.

As for your question, it is too deep for any short answer, although, sometimes extenuating circumstances play a factor more then genes.

-P

Anonymous said...

All about the comfort zone aint it... home is where you can be yourself...

Sathya

austere said...

Another one. Clean toppled over.

proxima- that home is shut, so everytime I go there there is a surprise. Yes, and but I dont like branches being chopped, trimmed or trees cut. perhaps they go for a better life, for the kids...


sathya- true. And she was clearly apprehensive, not used to western clothes either, desi like me.

AmitL said...

Hi,Austy-lightning and windstorm in Mumbai?Whew..Kuch bhi hota hai.

What makes us pack up and move,while some stay put,no matter what?Interesting question.
In Gujarat, we say that most Shahs and Patels,when they're born, say USA before any other words.(Just like in Kerala,the first word is 'Dubai').So,for them,US is home.

For the rest,it's usually the financial angle(like in my case),getting fed up of taking a loan,in order to invest and save on tax, every Jan-Feb).

Those who don't move,in spite of good offers,from what I've seen-it's usually parental pressure to stay with them. Or, it's the 'dil hai ki maanta nahin' thinking-taking such a big leap away from the security of home,is not an easy task.

austere said...

amit- in the good hometown. 'vava-jhodu' as its called, a much better term than "storm", and trees that tumbled were the least of the BMC's problems.

I think Shahs, Patels and the rest have a wanderlust gene, that the grass is greener. The rest quote a famous poet,that grass is grass, and the land is as brown, to paraphrase, security and may as well stay put.

Financial angle I well understand, would be filling water from a village well else.
:)

Portia said...

I can relate to the ones that up and move, but I wonder why Toronto? How thrilling and terrifying, all at once.

austere said...

Completely. We Gujaratis pack up and move, preferably to Amrika. Canada, NA, Aust do well for a stand-in.
Its something to do with the air, I'm convinced.