Desi

A friend sent me this link today which has Sivakumar's amusing article on Indians in U.S. who are debating on whether they should stay in U.S. or go back to India. Sivakumar talks about three kinds of desis: rich desi, poor desi and the smart desi. Just for you who are still wondering (or maybe trying to call their Indian friends; or maybe searching on the net) what "desi" means, you can read it at Wikipedia. Yes! Wikipedia actually defines the word "desi"!!

After reading the article I gave a lot of thought on what Siva has to say. Moreover, I had a discussion with another Indian friend on why I would like to stay in U.S. and why he wanted to go back to India as soon as he can. I've had these "debates" over and again with a lot of friends and also in my mind. But the more I think of it, the more it convinces me to stay here... in U.S. Of all the debates and discussions we had, one of them that comes to my mind is what's the value of a single life in U.S. I was talking to an American friend on the 9/11 and subsequent attack on Iraq where I was totally against the U.S. pounding on Iraq and above that, the whole world making such a big deal out of the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. I made a statement to him that the whole world is under attack from terrorists, which doesn't mean every country should start pounding every other country and that U.S. preaches "solution through peace talks" and didn't practice itself. His reply, that got me thinking, was "In the recent floods in Mumbai there were thousands dead and more thousands homeless, why isn't the (Indian) government doing anything about that?". He continued saying "every life matters in U.S., be it American or Alien matters." and that "U.S. authorities would go to any extent to save one life. And in 9/11 there were more than 3,000 lives gone". Now that got me thinking! I do agree that Indian government wasn't doing enough to handle the flood situation in Maharashtra, but then we, Indians, have come a long way in our 58 years of independence. Today, India has grown to a level where it can match the rest of the developed nations, economically and in development.

I would not go any further in who's right and who's wrong or which country is best to live in, because this is a debate which will go on forever!