Christopher McCandless truly says it, “The joy of living comes from our encounters with new experiences, and that is why there is no greater joy than having an infinitely changing horizon, so that each day has a new and different sun.”
As a teenager, the West, as always, seemed the epicenter of possibility and opportunity. Through this article I want to share my experiences as a young immigrant in the Western world during the last 20 years. I was only fifteen when my parents decided to move our base from India to the United States of America. As a young teenager, like everyone else at that age, I was very excited about the idea of Immigration and becoming an American citizen, exploring that part of the world that I had read so much about in books. Coming from an Armed Forces past, my life was always fast-moving and adventurous, with exposure to many states, cities, cultures, and the wonderful diversity that is India. Like all Fauji (army) children, as they are called, I lived in a very adventurous yet protective environment where somehow we are pampered to the core with comfort, safety, and the joys of down-to-earth life. . He loved that life.
I finished my board exams and we first traveled to the UK for a holiday, which was wonderful and fascinating, being my first international exhibition and then I arrived at the dream destination of the entire United States. The first weeks were like a dream, where everything was perfect, we were on vacation in Washington, Orlando and Seattle. Then, little by little, we delve into the realities of life and the challenges of new immigrants. I joined a school where I felt lonely and strange because my accent was different from most others and I couldn’t understand the spoken language of many students and vice versa. My way of thinking and also the concept of my public school education was very different in India, but soon my teachers began to understand the inherent strength of my educational knowledge base, including the grammatical correctness of my written English that was lacking in my classmates. . Along with this, I joined a summer job at the airport where we were supposed to help passengers of all shapes, languages, disabilities, location orientation, etc. The first day I helped a female passenger to a particular destination at the airport, she tipped $ 5. I took the money, but as soon as I got home, I cried with my heart to my father telling him that in India we tip the poor and here they tip me. I was feeling small. My father tried to explain to me what the culture is here and there is nothing wrong, this is the way to show courtesy, but I was too upset to understand it then. So this was my first experience with the new western culture. My work continued through the summer, and I still remember that at the end of the summer, if I didn’t get a tip, I used to get mad because I wasn’t making enough pocket money. I met an older man, a co-worker who I learned had just retired as a senior manager at Boeing.
He told me that he didn’t necessarily have to work, that he could sit in his big house and just garden. He came there just to have fun. In another case, we found a war veteran, a US Navy officer, who was driving a taxi. He said he did it for pleasure, since in no other occupation does he meet so many strangers that he enjoys interacting with. There I learn the value of human dignity. No job is small and no job makes you feel bigger than your natural size. The political and business class here have a lot to learn from them. Then I went back to my school. Little by little I was adjusting to the new environment, but I missed my life in India to the core. At any time, he would be ready to quickly return to India. During the following years I experienced many aspects of the new society, some were good and some made me think. We often traveled to Vancouver in Canada, just two hours of a wonderful scenic drive. Another aspect that I learn is that when they live abroad, the Indians are more cohesive Indians than in their homeland, where they remain rudderless.
My life continued with periods of stay in India and the United States. People in India envied me as I envied them. Then came a stage in my life in which I advanced, I did my professional degree and I joined Bank of America in the Investment branch. I was doing well professionally and now I had no conflict with Western life. We generally traveled to India once a year and now I began to see positivity in my new country of residence as well. I began to realize the scope of the opportunities there. The quality of life, whether you are rich or poor, is essentially the same as you eat similar foods, you get all the basic comforts of life quite easily, there is dignity at work, dignity in whatever work you do, and most importantly, no corruption at the level of the common man’s life. It took me many years to understand this, but now I know for sure what I am today because of the multiple exposure I had in my life. I’m not saying that as an immigrant there would be no problems, there definitely would be because we come from different cultures and backgrounds and we go through the pains of transformation. But this is all a phase, like the first time a small child is admitted to boarding school and cries under a sheet.
Today, my family members are well established in the United States and the children are doing very well and receiving the best education and opportunities. I lived in the US for 15 years and have had many opportunities to see the world around me, the west and the east, both offering a quality lifestyle to entrepreneurs seeking their fortune. I am back in India, equally comfortable and running my own immigration and visa company after completing my Master of International Business. Myself, as an immigrant who has seen the best of life in India and then the struggling experience of a new immigrant, a phase in which one wants to return to the life of the country of origin, now in a phase of today in which I love the worlds so much for what they have given me and my family.
Today I am the Managing Director of AKKAM Immigration and Allied Services that provides solutions and meets all the requirements related to immigration, study visas and allied services to multiple destinations around the world. I feel that all immigration consultants and agents can authentically guide clients if they have experienced the realities, challenges, and opportunities in immigration business themselves. I would always advise all my clients, friends and family that life is a unique blessing, spread your wings and experience the movement towards the Horizon, much awaits you, distant dreams, some dark clouds and wonderful colors beyond the Horizon.