Home Coming....

So finally, Pranay, and probably Sanjay as well, are planning to come back….. leaving behind all the comfort of the western world…. all the dollars…. and needless to say, HOT GORIs. And I would be the happiest person if they do come. Although to be politically correct, one need not wish like that coz they’re having the best of their career out there. They are getting what they truly deserve for their hard work and all the hardships they’ve faced in life. But, at times, the selfish Jay inside me does want his best buddies near him.

Whenever I talk to him these days, it’s like he is missing his homeland and his family badly. I can empathize with him since even after living just few thousand miles away from my family I miss them at times very badly. More than that, it’s the situations of our families which necessitates that we should be with them, or at least near them. And besides just the situation, it’s the loneliness we experience even after being surrounded by so many people. While I have roamed around some of the best cities of the world, experiencing so many comforts of life, had some of the best facilities where I live, a good salary job that satisfies more than my needs, the little soul inside me longs for that cushion of mom’s lap, that hug from father, that love from the little sister, that rotli-daal-bhaat-shaak, that juice round the corner after the dinner, those evening walks till Jivraj over bridge and so many other things.

Even after being so far, what makes us so connected to our roots, our family and our city? It has to be the values and culture that our parents imbibed into us right from our childhood. At times I wonder if our generation would be able to do so with our kids. As I see, with forthcoming generations, we are getting more and more disconnected with our family and getting closer to our friend circle. As we become more and more cosmopolitan citizens, the cultures are getting mixed. We no longer belong to a particular region. It’s not an easy task, in such a scenario, to make sure our children remember where they belong to.

I think the greatest challenge for our generation would be to imbibe the same ethics, culture and values in our children as our parents imbibed into us.