R,
After one and a half years of living in Canada, we went back to India. It was an exhilarating, terrifying feeling. Neither of us had wanted to live outside India anyway. Canada was a one-off, a chance to stay in a place that let us explore the world more easily than India would, before eventually heading home.
I want our kids to have a childhood like ours had been – filled with relatives, friends, good food, and plenty of outdoor play time. They’d hear myths and wonder how they’d originated, and learn to be respectful, adaptable people with their own opinions.
Of course, when I looked at India with fresh eyes, I realized our childhood can’t be recreated. There’s far more traffic, safety is an issue, and while it may be a third world country, a middle class lifestyle is no longer cheap by any stretch of imagination.
Don’t get me wrong, I still find Canada a tad too complacent for my liking, and would prefer that my child grow up in a more ambitious, level-headed setting where not everything falls plumly in their laps. As sadistic as that sounds, all I’m saying is that I’d like them to strive to be the best version of themselves, not merely okay. I had parents who are faaaar from pushy and I feel that growing up unpressurized in a society full of pressures was the best of both worlds.
That said, as I fought with auto drivers and bargained over everything, the obvious question arose, “Why does everything need to be such a fight?” I love the way I can rely on constants in Canada – the predictability of public transport, the safety of the roads even at night, the marked prices on everything. Yes, a kid could be lulled into a false sense of security by it, and they may never learn to value any of it, but it would be so easy.
We’re going to keep going back and forth on this until I’m actually pregnant, and even then we may not know if we made the right choice. As I head back to India in April, I’m keen to see if any new insights come up.
-A.
After one and a half years of living in Canada, we went back to India. It was an exhilarating, terrifying feeling. Neither of us had wanted to live outside India anyway. Canada was a one-off, a chance to stay in a place that let us explore the world more easily than India would, before eventually heading home.
I want our kids to have a childhood like ours had been – filled with relatives, friends, good food, and plenty of outdoor play time. They’d hear myths and wonder how they’d originated, and learn to be respectful, adaptable people with their own opinions.
Of course, when I looked at India with fresh eyes, I realized our childhood can’t be recreated. There’s far more traffic, safety is an issue, and while it may be a third world country, a middle class lifestyle is no longer cheap by any stretch of imagination.
Don’t get me wrong, I still find Canada a tad too complacent for my liking, and would prefer that my child grow up in a more ambitious, level-headed setting where not everything falls plumly in their laps. As sadistic as that sounds, all I’m saying is that I’d like them to strive to be the best version of themselves, not merely okay. I had parents who are faaaar from pushy and I feel that growing up unpressurized in a society full of pressures was the best of both worlds.
That said, as I fought with auto drivers and bargained over everything, the obvious question arose, “Why does everything need to be such a fight?” I love the way I can rely on constants in Canada – the predictability of public transport, the safety of the roads even at night, the marked prices on everything. Yes, a kid could be lulled into a false sense of security by it, and they may never learn to value any of it, but it would be so easy.
We’re going to keep going back and forth on this until I’m actually pregnant, and even then we may not know if we made the right choice. As I head back to India in April, I’m keen to see if any new insights come up.
-A.
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