Why I returned home
I recently volunteered to participate in an election campaign that took place in Bangalore. As a part of my efforts during this campaign, I saw places with my own eyes that had thus far only existed as figments of my imagination in the visceral recesses of my brain. I saw and met people whose living conditions I was ready to describe as “squalor” and whose civil rights as “non-existent”. But I had to hold myself back because there really were many others that were much worse off. Their human condition was exulted by the fact that they were simply alive, today.
These were places begging for change, not just the mild kind of begging where someone with tears in their eyes pleads with you to give them money, but the worse kind where they simply needn’t say anything - just their bare and silent presence in front of your eyes screams for you to do something to uplift their condition.
Do I run back to the US where I was for ten years or do I stay and help change the system around so that these people I saw get their voices heard? Could I live some place happily in complete ignorance of people met and things seen or should I stay and help alleviate the situation.
Someone on this site mentioned that “Home is the place you leave because some of it is rotten and you don’t believe you can repair it.” Hey, no one expects you to stay and help change the system. Some people have the capacity and some people don’t. If you’re not around, we’ve got a billion more to choose from. But don’t justify your leaving the country by blaming the system. You were a part of it as much as anyone else and it was your responsibility to change it as well. You left because you can’t handle it or you wanted a better life somewhere else. I don’t blame you, everyone’s got just one life to live, but get some perspective.
- Sharan Grandigae, Bangalore - Philadelphia - Bangalore
