Life in the US

The beautiful gardens, the crisp clean air, the awe inspiring architecture, the spellbinding museums, the long winding trails with beautiful trees on either side, the lovely waterways, the cool waft of seemingly unpolluted breeze that perpetually floats around – freshening up even the groggiest of moods!

The pedestrian-friendly roads and paths making even a long walk seem like bliss, the endless options to shop till you drop, and most importantly the favorable exchange rate which offers the illusion of extreme wealth – The land of dreams has it all and more.

The pictures on social media should make it quite evident that life here is nothing but fabulous! Lucky me getting to travel to exotic locations without spending a penny!

Well, social media (un)fortunately doesn’t show the complete picture- there are millions of tiny things that do not make its way into Insta pictures or Whatsapp statuses:

The realization that the most painstakingly prepared food is missing a little something;

The sinking feeling after looking at the social media pictures of the loved ones that the conspicuous absence of self is not just in their pictures but also in their memories;

The endless remorse after missing the most important milestone of someone back home;

The big things starting to not seem as exciting as the small things that remind of home;

The heartbreak moment during the middle of the day on realizing that loved ones are not always a phone call away!

And the painful wait – wait for the early mornings, the wait for the late nights, the wait for the blue tick marks, the wait for the notifications – the endless patience that is enforced by the time and the distance!

We can get everything here, even hard to find Indian stuff, but guess what, no recipe gives the measure of love to be added to make the food complete and the beautiful stuff around are just that – fleetingly beautiful, in the absence of loved ones. No amount of instant gratifications can chase away that annoying little feeling of loneliness which swells up more and more with every passing day, a million things cleverly hidden from social media adds up to that loneliness.

So the next time a beautiful picture from here is posted know that behind the smiles hides some bit of loneliness and the heart always wishes to rather be around the people viewing the pictures than in that “beautiful” location called the US.