Chapter 28 Time to move

‘I can’t stay in this foreign land any more,’ she tried her best to convince him, on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

‘What’s wrong with this firang land? There are no intrusions, you can do what you want, I am paid well, we live in a great house, and you even got your degree in Public Relations,’ he jogged her memory and enlisted all the advantages that had come from their stay in US.

‘But, it’s so far off. I would like to be in my own country. Dad has retired by now, and I would like to visit them more often,’ she stuck to her arguments.

‘The R word has also been around for a while,’ she told him.

‘Why go to India, when we are forced to? Why don’t you look for opportunities and we will leave, once you find a suitable one,’ she made sense and he couldn’t deny it. The recession in US economy in 2008 had begun to scare the desis, but he couldn’t agree right away. Then all of a sudden she almost spoke, ‘You too have changed so much.’

‘What did you say?’ he demanded.

‘Nothing,’ she spoke.

‘No I heard it, I didn’t change, but I could not get over the fact, that you chose to stay for a year away from me, when there was not a need to do so,’ he repeated it again for a countless time.

‘Why don’t you get over it now? Almost 10 years had gone by, since that happened. Look at our life, there are so many good things around,’ now was her turn to remind him of the blessings.

‘I think that staying away from our family is doing this to us,’ she spoke trying not to lose the track of the argument.

‘And anyway, where are we, in a village of US,’ she spoke with disdain, about her place of residence.

‘This village is better than many cities in India,’ he spoke with anger.

She wouldn’t give up so fast. All these years had trained her in the art of argument, and was thinking of an apt reply.

‘Mom-Dad, you two start at any opportunity. Stop it as we have to go to the Indian store in Milwaukee, Rajul yelled from her room.

‘They both stopped right away. Thanks di, Rhea complimented her big sister for her timely intervention. I was getting a headache listening to both of them,’ she drawled in an impeccable firang accent.

‘I am in the car, waiting for you all,’ Akhil spoke as he left the kitchen table.

‘Why don’t you say that you are going for a smoke break?’ Ashmi nagged.

‘Yes, I am. You have a problem,’ he was getting tired with all this debate.

‘Smoke and leave us half way to fend for ourselves. Your big sister is going to usurp all the property that is there,’ she was in no mood to relent.

‘I have earned enough to secure the future of my girls, And now, if you don’t mind can I enjoy my smoke?’ he spitted words laced with venom.

‘Why should I? Do I have a mind to mind?’ she said with tears glistening in her eyes.

‘Drama!’ he spluttered. Almost every Sunday for the last two years, since her dad retired, she broached the subject and it would end in the same way.

‘No way I would go back. My in-laws decide a lot in my life,’ he thought.

The drive went in silence. They didn’t speak. The ice wall built on Sunday, would crumble by Wednesday and it would be rebuilt again on a Sunday. Two months later Akhil had to put in his papers on a day’s notice as the company was trimming down its cost.

The high paid over-seas employees could offer their expertise and skills on US timings at Indian salaries. They had to rejoin the Indian wing.

Akhil was upset. Ashmi was happy. Rajul and Rhea were sad.

‘I am not going to go,’ he told Ashmi. ‘I would look for an opportunity here.’

‘You forgot, that you are on L1 and on this visa, you couldn’t get a job here,’ she was right. They wrapped their house in a hurry. What could be shipped back was brought back. India awaited them.