by Vani Viswanathan
r2i dreams: For here or to go?
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (July 29, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1500705802
“…it follows us, haunts us, surrounds us and overwhelms us…”
“…the exhilarating, maddening, exciting, frightening adventure called r2i…”
r2i is ‘Return to India’, and Parth Pandya (a regular Spark contributor!), Ramya Sethuraman and Subhashini Srinivasan have written their versions of dealing with the dilemma of whether to return to India that many an Indian in the USA faces.
Completely based on their personal lives, trials, tribulations, love, hate and growth, ‘r2i dreams’ draws you in right from the beginning with its personal connect. We are faced with a young man and two young women who, somewhat accidentally, find themselves joining the hordes of Indians looking for a place in the land of opportunities, the United States of America.
And so we are introduced to the journeys that Parth, Ramya and Subhashini make, on their way to the U.S. The writers lace it with their charms – be it Parth’s characteristic wit: “Piles and piles of documents are put together, just in case the visa officer decides he wants to know whether you really won that elocution competition in third grade that you claimed to have.” Or Ramya’s humorous descriptions that as someone brought up in Chennai I could connect to – visions of the U.S. consulate and her father circling around on a scooter while she stood in queue, or her accounts of temple visits with her mother praying for funding and her “safe and prosperous future” in the U.S., or the angst: “The weeks before my travel, my mom would tear up now and then and look at me accusingly as if I had made a big hole in her favourite silk saree while ironing it.” And you sympathise with Subhashini when she describes the twists and turns of fate that landed her straight from Canada to the temple town of Srirangam in Tamil Nadu or when her admission letter had her father’s name spelled wrongly and she had to let go of the opportunity.
When the three eventually reach the U.S., we are treated to a delightful mix of their initial reactions: Parth finds the atmosphere “inert” and longs for some noise, while for Ramya it’s the realisation that no one really cares, which she figures when she dumps a load of ice into her drink, and Subhashini is flabbergasted when she has to deal with a “rogue” professor and a roommate who cries for the Christ. All along, we get a glimpse into their versions of growing up: dealing with like-never-before independence, learning to drive a car, earning their first dollars, getting accustomed to ridiculous winter temperatures, or bonding over Indian food or cricket. These are well supplemented by cute, little illustrations by Jessica Wu Ramirez.
The reader grows up with the writers, as they go through their two-year university degrees, find jobs and get used to meritorious, liberal corporate life in America, meet their partners, get married, move towns, have children and slowly settle into the wondrous rhythm of a life of baseball, fall, American desi life and visa status discussions. They talk of a life where they comfortably switch between being Indian and being American. Of traversing two worlds – by trying to keep navaratri traditions alive, and teaching children to talk in their mother tongue. They highlight the comforts of the land of opportunities – the talented help at home, the convenience of DIY, the pride that everyone had about their jobs. They also talk about the periodic longing to be in India, but the unwillingness to give up on the comforts and opportunities that the U.S. offers; their guilt putting their parents through American life but also of watching their children grow up alien to their parents’ culture; their realisation that the U.S. will probably offer their children the best of opportunities, while secretly worrying about gun shootings in schools. In other words, they describe dilemmas you have gone through, or that you’ve heard of from someone close. We all know about it, we’ve all talked about it.
Parth, Ramya and Subhashini write about their agonising debates over the issue (point driven in a neat cover by Megha Vishwanath), and we get a taste of each of their thoughts on whether to return. One of them decides to, one of them decides maybe not, and one would leave it for time to tell. They all know what they’ve got, what they’re giving up, and they know that some day they might look back on their decision and wonder why they chose that option.
The fact that they could convey this, to me, is the biggest success of the book. With their easy-going narration, they make the everydays that many of us have faced into a tale we can relate to, in some way or the other. The tales of figuring out that you say “times” and not “into” (the Indian way of referring to multiplication) or that you should snap out of counting numbers in “lakhs” and “crores.” The realisation that the India they left is the picture of India they continue to carry in their minds, while the country has moved leaps and bounds.
As someone who made her own r2i – even if from a country just four hours away from India, I was nodding along through various parts of the book. The confusion, the regrets, the anger at the convoluted systems, the guilt at feeling like a stranger in your own land after just a few years away – these were captured beautifully, in their own ways, by the three writers.
r2i dreams, as I see it, is an extension of the wonderful boom that blogging saw a decade ago – which brought to the fore, rich, personal writing. As the writers were/are active bloggers, one sees genuine, relatable language, with the ability to tell a rich story. The fact that the U.S. has left a lasting impression on them is seen in the American words and spellings that feature in their writing – faucets, Thanksgiving and play dates. There are a few spots where editing could have been tighter – just to correct the occasional “return back”s that dot the book, but maybe that’s the sign that the authors are still Indian at heart! Also, the stories in the appendix were a little too much to handle after an entire book dedicated to the issue of r2i – perhaps the authors could have encouraged a discussion online, instead?
In all, r2i won me over with its ability to make me relate. Reading it on the way to and from work, I often found myself laughing out aloud in a crowded public train. It reminded me of my journey to an unknown land, my heady jump into a foreign world and my return to a supposedly familiar land, all along traversing the tugs and pulls of my mother and motherland. I say mother, because I laughed and kept re-reading this sentence by Ramya, describing the first time she left India for the U.S. – a sentence that encapsulates why I could so relate to, and enjoy this book:
“I waved one last time and headed towards the elevator after dutifully bowing down to Lord Krishna’s photo that my mom held in her left hand and frantically pointed to with her right index finger.”
r2i Dreams : for here or to go? Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/r2idreams
Vani Viswanathan is often lost in her world of books and A R Rahman, churning out lines in her head or humming a song. Her world is one of frivolity, optimism, quietude and general chilled-ness, where there is always place for outbursts of laughter, bouts of silence, chocolate, ice cream and lots of books and endless iTunes playlists from all over the world. She is now a CSR communications consultant, and has been blogging at http://chennaigalwrites.blogspot.com since 2005.
