Things They Don't Tell You About America

It has been over 8 months since I am living here in New York City, I have come across lots of positive things to appreciate about life here, but every immigrant has something positive to say, and hence I decided to take a different route...

One of these days, I can publish a book, "Things they don't tell you about America"... Wait a minute, I can publish my thoughts just now in the form of a blog! :-)

The "They" in the title stands for "Immigrants from developing countries".

I have seen soooo many cousins, friends, relatives migrating to the US, they come back to India/Kenya and complain about all bad things in India/Kenya and talk only of the great things in America...

But I was surprised to know that nobody ever told me about the problems I could face here!!!

Life was fine for the first 2 months... Then I developed a mild itch. Next the itch turned soooo severe, I rushed to a dermatologist expecting a severe allergy problem (I attributed it to carpets, since I am asthmatic) or a skin infection of some bizarre kind... It reached a stage when I couldn't sleep, I used to keep itching throughout the night, literally like an animal, I had bleeding wounds all over my body... Thank God I speak English & could communicate with everyone, otherwise someone could have mistaken me as a victim of Asian domestic abuse & put my poor darling husband behind bars ;-)

The dermatologist took one quick look at me, and told me that this is a typical condition, called "Winter eczema", associated with immigrants from warmer climates! Apparently, my body is not used to severe cold, nor is it used to the intense heat generated by the apartment heaters, so my skin dried up from within over two months until I developed a severe itch. The dermatologist said she sees cases like me ALL THE TIME, and that I needn't worry. I was prescribed some anti-histamines, some strong moisturizers, steroid ointments, with itch relief medication. In the waiting room, I saw so many patients from the Indian subcontinent, all of them new to USA. I went for a follow up twice, my medicine dosage was increased, I was prescribed stronger corticosteroid ointments to heal my skin.. The moment I told my cousin about my skin problem, she said she too has it, only that her skin is okay but her nose bleeds in winter!! Yet another cousin said his skin literally turned black because of pigmentation... Another friend said his nose bleeds... Then one of them announced, every state in the USA has its own version of severe weather, stretching from severe snow to regular tectonic tremors to hurricanes, tornadoes etc...

It's okay, I take such things in stride, thank God I didn't have a serious medical condition like a fungal infection or allergy.

It was my husband's turn next! He started complaining of a feeling of obstruction down his throat, it was finally diagnosed as another version of winter dryness, his mucus membranes dried up... :-D

Then I wondered, how come "They" told us wonderful things about America all these years, but "They" didnt bother to tell us about how irritating the weather/lifestyle here can be??? How come "They" are ready to complain about power cuts/bad roads/pollution/congestion in India, but don't tell us about how difficult life can be here?

And all this 'hulchul' in my life over nothing, there wasn't one single bug in our apartment!

I just knew that I need to write on this topic, because it keeps running through my mind all the time... I don't like people who unnecessarily criticize one country while endlessly praising another one. Nor do I like blind Indian patriots, they are another extreme in that they hate everything about NRIs until they have the oppurtunity to be an NRI themselves ;-)

The point of my writeup is, no place is perfect, every place has its own list of conveniences & drawbacks, and most important of all, we should learn to respect the place where we were brought up, as well as the place where we live currently, because we owe our past, present and future to where we lived/live...

My story doesn't end here, I have another topic on my mind that I am itching to write about, but it is not "Things They Don't Tell about America", it is a much discussed topic, and it deserves a blog entry of its own! Its about my limited experiences with the health-care system, something that really deserves a lot of sonch vichaar!