Story of a boy living away from home
This is a story of how a boy living away from home, finds himself. The challenges to find his identity and the lessons learnt along the way.
Where he comes from — India
The utter challenge of coming from India is that life is really different back home. He grew up eating the small type of food he is used to — Dosa, Idli, Sambar, Rice and an entire section of the country wrapped into something called North Indian cuisine. But little did he know that his world would unravel. Everything was different from the world he came from — the things he ate, the kind of interactions he had with his family, the way of seeing the world. The priorities of life — work, family and money.
One of the major challenges growing up was seeing how to not be in a adult relationship, especially seeing that his parents constantly were at odds with each other. Also, figuring out how money works was another challenge because he was never taught how to respect money. He learnt from his dad that even if there was no money for oneself, he was supposed to bear the burden and carry it along. So any little money that would make it’s way to the family would always be spent. So there was no understanding of saving money or anything along those lines.
Lastly, he never learnt how to respect and love himself. He was always respected for his accomplishments — doing great at school, doing great at sports, winning medals or competitions. But that never gave him a sense of self, he was always dictated of his own value by outside circumstances and that quickly began to show how shallow it was in his late 20s.
How the world shapes him — The USA
What happens when you take some one like this and put them into an entirely new world — the USA! The person is re-born. Let me explain. Let’s start with food, that’s everyone’s favorite. I believe there is a lot to learn from different cuisines around the world, the way people create dishes and how nutrition is encapsulated into different foods is amazing to see and learn. While there are definitely patterns around food. There are also eccentricities regarding each food and where it comes from. So to begin, exploring and inculcating this into his routine. He began adopting — American breakfast, variations of Asian and Mexican lunches and fortifying his Indian cooking. Just that alone was a long way from where he comes from.
Expanding further, he was overwhelmed when he was able to make money and able to get credit cards approved with tens of thousands of dollars. This is similar to a kid given an entire jar of candies. All it knows is to enjoy it all, until an adult comes by to explain and take care of the repercussions of their actions. But after a lot of experience and learning from the internet, he figures out how to deal with money well.
Then comes the most important part of all of this, learning to deal and love oneself. There is a constant battle of the unknown when you are in conflict with yourself all the time. It is really to make any progress in terms of mental well-being. But the journey of finding love within yourself is a constant battle. You learn about the many things that would give you peace of mind — starting with a fulfilling career, taking care of your physical health with exercise, taking care of diet by eating nutritious food, having a passionate side project to work on, working on your relationships and last but not the least meditation and keeping a journal.
Becoming a global citizen
What years of staying in the US has made this boy is that he can acknowledge this roots and the culture he comes from. While, also picking and carving a beautiful life for himself. He turns to become a global citizen by picking up some great cuisines along the way, meeting people from diverse backgrounds and growing with them, sharing the stories he is learning with the world and all the while also further growing both mentally and individually as a person.
