Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Indians in America

A single post would not be sufficient enough to describe about our fellow Indians in America.
Disclaimer 1 :As a disclaimer, I would try to be on safer side mentioning that I am not generalizing.
Disclaimer 2: I am born and brought up in India and I love India. JaiHind!

Major US cities are now flooded with Indians. One in every 20 people are Indians. That's my guess on the ratio. I am yet to research on the actual proportion. Indians can be easily distinguished by many factors like color, accent, attitude, attire, physic, food, kids, parents, drivers, cars, etc.

As a first note, an Indian would predominantly drive a Toyota Camry or a Toyota Corolla or a Honda Civic. Its is very hard to find an Indian with an American model car. Secondly, Indians are always found in groups only with other Indians. To say it more detailed, the groups are precisely based on region, religion, language, caste. Of course, looks like an extension of India by itself.

Thirdly, an Indian will never teach his kid how to behave in public places. He'd rather pinch the kid to cry more. Again my words like 'never', 'always' are meant not to generalize, in this post!Well, I might sound a bit weird and harsh here. But having observed the other kids, I am bound to compare. In a flight, or a queue, or a bus, or a train, or a shop, or a library, or a place with a 'silence please' board; a kid who screeches will 99% be of an Indian's. I don't blame the kid, but his dad!

Fourthly, some forgotten/ignorant disciplines like parking the car a little away from the given premises considering plus or minus phenomenon. Indians are brought up with Indian driving skills and a sudden change to a more disciplined driving does not seem to suit them, at least for sometime in the beginning. And our housewives, who have accompanied husbands in H4 Visa make no difference to their counterparts in India. A little difference with the 4 walls being, American. I have observed ladies peeping into other persons privacy by staring at them for a longer period of time. I would really want them to come out of this regular 'cooking-child care-husband care-cooking-sleeping-cooking.....' schedule.

Fifthly, I would like to continue later on when I experience something weird.

11 comments:

meher said...

well no matter wat indian are always indian....irrespective of the place they live in

Anuradha said...

Are you a victim too?

Not just me, many others too feel the same way I guess. Today the residents in my community recieved a notice which said "Please supervise your kids and be courteous to other residents".

Matangi Mawley said...

:) nice post!

Ann said...

Thanks Matangi

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I am also an Indian by birth but have chosen to study and live in US,here and I love it here. I think most Indians do behave the way you have described,not all though.

Anuradha said...

Never ALL!

Gargee said...

If everybody is feeling the same, why isn't anyone changing?

Unknown said...

This is a mind boggling thought - why Indians are like this. I especially loved your fourth point. when I relocated to this country, 10 years back, it was the same treatment from Indians. I wen to Grad School and got my master's degree and a job later. But ,that 1 year when I was at home was hell - especially coz of the questions asked. And, yes I do agree that we women should come out of schedules of cooking-child-husband. There is so much more to do. I hope you are not the one who is doing home-husband after writing such a post :). I hope you are using your time constructively.

Anuradha said...

@Concise Blahs
Good question! It lies in the hands of the individuals

Anuradha said...

@Neha,

Glad to hear someone else has felt the same way! And as you say, I am spending my time constructively pursuing my higher studies as well.Feels good!

Unknown said...

Thanks for your follow-up comment. appreciate it.
Great to know anuradha that you are pursuing higher studies. It might even help you land a job here once you complete.
If I may ask which university are you with? I went to University of Virginia to do my Master's in Computer Science and Engineering. This was almost 8 years back..Sigh, you brought back memories. Thanks :). Education here is one of my best experiences till date.I am sure you are enjoying Graduate school too.
May be you could 'entertain' your bloggers with some snippets from your life in college here :). Just a thought from me, hope you do not mind the suggestions. I love reading blogs and that's why I'm here.