Chatting with friends across the globe I observed that their energy levels seemed to be in Recession! For the past six months due to the global economic changes most NRIs have been really down and depressed. This month it has reached its peak due to the elections in India.
How's that? Mostly there are 3 common sources of entertainment in the week for NRIs:
1. Read the newspaper - Indian news, regional news and anything remotely related to the city they come from to feel connected.
2. Watch cricket and more cricket and even more cricket if its possible - to feel the Indian spirit.
3. Watch every damn single movie released or not released in India to while away an evening. If its in the mother tongue then its better or else atleast in Hindi.
Now translate that into the current situation:
1. Every single newspaper or article is about the depressing Politics in the Elections. No clear cut mandate about the results. No single party majority. Every single politician's gory history is dragged through the mud. Overall sounds like a hopeless form of government led by crooks and criminals.
- Offers no sense of support to a person seeking a connection to his homeland.
2. Cricket - with the IPL moving out of India (due to the elections!) we've lost out on the biggest chunk of entertainment series. We cannot see the massive crowds, turnouts cheering every single match and cricketer and the frenzy that only an Indian crowd can achieve is unmistakably lost. About the interesting cheerleaders of last year's matches - well they probably will be shipped to South Africa - but thanks we've seen enough of them in our baseball and football matches out here! Sniff sniff...Now watching the matches will be a passing event - to be watched but not to live through it.
3. Movies the biggest ever hit - a combination of the final exams times and the elections period has seen a slump in the releases. I suppose the recession has affected it too. Overall there's nothing entertaining to watch nothing to look forward too. The movies online are pathetic and there are absolutely nothing we can do about it.
With every other NRI either packing up and going back to India or unemployed the levels of uncertainty have risen. With the three main sources of entertainmet drying up I can only call the situation a dead-end! Weekdays are long and boring and the psychiatrists may have a field day with the Stressed NRIs. Weekends can be even more pathetic coz no one is spending much to be on the safe side in 2009.
Overall its Death by Boredom out here for most NRIs.
What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?I think it is the hope of loving or being loved. - Meister Eckhart. (Loving here symbolises stability and some connection to the homeland which inspires this stability! )
Dheeraj Rakho! Himmat Rakho!
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