The USA Charisma

It is definitely an overawing experience for any Indian, when one lands in the USA for the first time. A completely different atmosphere awaits you there. As against one’s perception, it is home not only to white and black Americans, but also to a lot of foreigners from Canada, China, Cuba, India, Korea, Mexico, Philippines etc. All of them have got different reasons to be attracted to this country. While some of them come to fulfill their dreams of higher studies, quite a few of them come to be a part of progressive working culture. Well, the remaining lot comes here to accompany their family members. Behind all these superficial reasons, every one out here is with a mission to earn more money and lead a better living style. According to the US Census Bureau's 2007 American Community Survey, there were 38 M foreign born( immigrants) in the United States, which represents 12.6 percent of the total US population. These numbers explain the charisma of USA loud and clear.

Once here, you cannot help noticing a stark difference between the two countries. All traffic signals work efficiently, less or no traffic jam, change your perception for traveling by road. You get to feast your eyes with beautiful sights of nature on the either of the puddle–free, wide roads. Tall trees, ice clad mountains and wooden homes. Here houses or apartments are mostly hut shaped, so that ice doesn’t stay on the top for a long time. Remember those childhood drawings, when you used to paint your dream homes with vibrant colors.

Reckless driving is a complete NO-NO, unlike what they show in Hollywood movies. Residents over here drive very carefully. They strictly follow the rules, in the fear of getting caught from the cops. One has to pay dearly once a ticket has been issued. Nonetheless, driving over here is worth an experience. Talk about experience; Pedestrians/Bikers have got the similar story to tell. They are even more protected by the law over here. Though there are dedicated biker lanes and cross walks for pedestrians but still, person behind the wheel has to yield to such people in any given situation. Incase of any collision too, mostly the car driver would be held guilty. Dedicated walk signals, road rules favoring pedestrians, wide spread roads, pollution free air; Combine all this on a bright pleasant day walk -what more you could have asked for!

Life is not that a fairytale here. Undoubtedly you have all the luxuries in life; still you don’t have all your friends and family here with you. Staying away from them for a while make you realise how important role they play in your life. Despite all the mechanical help and automated system, you still need human companionship to share your happiness and sorrows. Time zone difference too doesn't help either.
Come to think of it, there are so many joys which however, small used to make a big difference in our lives. Where else in the world would you get the authentic bhelpuri, sevpuri and vada pav. Doesn’t your mouth start watering on just the mention of these evening time snacks? Those walk with your childhood buddies used to be loaded with information about the latest in neighborhood. Information which your friend would fill you up with. You still wonder about his sources though! Even at work, almost every month there are public holidays on account of some festival or any national day. Those days are fun, in fact more than the weekends. Enjoying late breakfast, surfing TV channel carelessly and while you do so, you would come across one of your favourite movie which you would have watched at least 50 times in past. Nonetheless a good time pass! A heavy meal at the lunch hour followed by a long nap, were very important hours of the day. Such days would end up on a resolution to utilize next holiday in the best possible way. Oh man, so many memories. Is some body being nostalgic?

Coming back to the real world, yeah you won’t find such small pleasures of life here. What you would get over here is a better, improved and advanced world to live a progressive and fun filled life. Better Infrastructure was just one of the examples, which I think distinguishes USA from India or from any country in the world for that matter. Besides, there would be so many other factors which add to the magnetic effect of this country. I am beginning to realize the reasons but I have not reached a stage where I can pen them down in the form concrete thoughts. While I do that, I am also eagerly waiting to treat myself with the summer season of the year. From what ever I have heard of and read about this season, is the most beautiful part of the year. I really want to savor the pleasure of those ‘wow moments’, here in the USA.