Recently I came across two life stories' let us call them Mr. C and Mr. P. First about Mr. C. This gentleman has been living in the west for the past 50 odd years. Practically grew up here. Worked here and raised a family here. He is retired now and seems very comfortably off considering his pricey downtown slick condo accommodation. Last person you would imagine that wishes to go back and live in India or at least spend a large part of the year there. Wrong! To my utter surprise this gentleman was practically begging for some information/ advice that would enable him to go live in - hold your breath - Delhi.!
To my utter surprise and greater dismay he practically gave me ; a total stranger, his life history. Just because I was an Indian and from Delhi ,he hoped I could help him!. To use a metaphor this was the only straw that this drowning man was trying to clutch! All he wanted was someone to rent him a room for 5/ 6 months, then he will see .
If you are guessing that he is going because of family ; you would be wrong again! He has no family to speak of in the city. Remember he left India decades ago around the time Nehru was the PM. In fact his wife has passed on and all his children live close to him in the US and Canada. Everybody he has known personally, socially and professionally is in North America. No one remembers him in India. No one is looking forward to seeing him. He has no property in India.
So What can move a 75 year old to leave what he built all his life in the west and seek solace in India. He is just a regular person , he is not going to conduct research, he is not going to find God, he is not going to invest ; he is not going to do any social work; he is just going. After spending all his adult life outside he thinks he will be among his own only in India. This is so when this metro has nearly 600000 people of Indian origin. Even than he feels like a stranger.
He is an Indian in his heart- an Indian by choice. So he thinks this is no place to live. Makes you think seriously about identity crisis. The crisis of being old, alone and an Indian in America. I hope he finds his happiness in the evening of his life ,although I am afraid he will be disappointed.
That brings us to Mr. P. He is my friends father. Or I should say was, since he is in his heavenly abode. Now this gentleman arrived some years ago from India and he lived and worked in the US for a decent length of time. As he neared the retirement age he moved back to India. Since according to him this was no place to die. Anyway he was recently visiting his son when he was taken ill. And to cut the long story short he passed away of all the places, in America. One place he did not want to die in. He did not want to be an American , just became one by chance or should we say American By Death!
Speaking of death- so the path breaking performer Michael Jackson died .Maybe the God of death did him a great favour by taking him away when he was still popular enough to be missed by fans. Had he lived another ten years people might have said "Michael Who?" instead of ''Oh no, not Michael!" Now that would really really mean death , this untimely death has made him live forever .
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