Fighting a reputation - II

A friend of mine just returned from a holiday in America. It had always been, rather, it IS her dream to land up in America at a point later in her life. Naturally, I was really curious as to what lessons did this small trip give her.

As expected, she enjoyed the trip a lot. In short, it probably was a perfect holiday for her. There was at least one thing that disturbed her though. She happened to notice that Indians (not red ;) living in the US were not quite as receptive to Indians as one would expect. Americans, on the other hand, extended much warmer feelings.

I wasn't really surprised at this though. Post 9-11, many "outsiders" in the U.S. have been eyed with suspicion. America obviously doesn't want a repeat of 9-11, what with their political/military excesses in other parts of the world. And those "outsiders", I guess, have been try as hard, if not harder, trying to "fit in". It's like being a teenager - the more you try to be someone, the more you ignore things that hold you back from being that "someone". We try to be not seen with certain kind of people, and try to hang out with others. And Indians in the U.S. are probably going through something similar.

What further reinforces this point is Pascal's trip abroad. Pascal has been abroad quite a few times, and many of those trips have been while he was in school (pre 9-11). Although he has never been to the US, he tells me that Indians abroad were quite pleasant and friendly. In fact, he had lived with an Indian family in Europe for some time.

California callin', twenty miles to go ...
And I don't, I don't know,
Should I turn around or should I leave you alone ?
I don't, I don't know ...