Anomaly in America..

It was April 16, 2007. The place was Blacksburg, VA., southwest of Roanoke where Virginia Tech, commonly used name for the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, is located. By 9:30 that morning, something horrendous had taken place in the campus of Virginia Tech. 32 people including 5 faculty members were massacred at Virginia Tech.

As it would seem the incident was really shocking and gross, and most importantly something on such a large scale had happened in the United States. I think something really moving after the 9/11 attacks. Having stayed in the United States for close to a year now, I knew that this is a ‘skewed society’. The anomaly is deep embedded in the USA culture and surprisingly not completely inculcated by the Americans themselves but something which is contributed by the third world countries as well.

The random shootouts and killings are not something which is really out of order, especially in the USA and I guess its part of every society today. But very less than often it happens in campus of any University and that too by an ‘International student’. (Infact, there was one shootout very close to my place where a shopkeeper was shot when he refused to give some items for free to some African Americans, this was within few months of my arrival to Buffalo, NY).

Among the few things which standout about Virginia incident, one of them which really strikes me (as to others) is the killer Cho Seung-Hui. Of course there are other obvious issues of security, the Fire-arm laws and lapse on the part of homeland security that failed to stop the massacre but I don’t think I can comment on them that well. As being written by all the newspaper around the world, Cho was a Korean. I would like to refute that statement with greasy ease. If a person has arrived in the USA at the age of 5 and stayed in here for over 13 years he is more of American than of any other nationality. Cho arrived in the USA in 1993 (with his family) and has stayed here since then. The loneliness and grudge which Cho was harboring all his life was not something ‘uncommon’ in Americans (especially African Americans) or expatriates in America. It is the difficult assimilation in the culture of America that makes the transition very tough, and even more difficult for expatriates from the third world countries (American are racist to some extent and believe me they are partially responsible for this massacre).

You will find many victims of this identity crisis in the USA, like Cho, who are ready to prove that the world is wrong and they are nemesis to this injustice. The problem of identity crisis is very common with kids of expatriates who we famously call American Born Confused Desis (not only Indians but desis comprising expatriates from all other countries). I don’t know who coined this word but whosoever said that, I will bet my life on him. I have observed this aspect of Identity crisis very closely among the Indians students who were either born here or were brought up here in the USA. For them, even talking to Indians is something which is deplorable, so they keep a distance with Indians because they don’t consider themselves Indians but American. But the paradox is that Americans keep distance with these ABCDs as they think these brats are still Indians. Hence they end up being nowhere!

The problem is much more profound than it looks on the surface and it encompasses various aspects of upbringing kids including the apprehensions of the parents about their kids growing up in this weed culture. It is very easy for a kid who comes here in his teens to get lost and even if he is born here, it is very difficult for that kid to survive the stark difference in environment at his home and external environment. The future looks even grimmer when I think that I might end up being a part of this culture and real victims would be my kids. So couple of more years of my life here and then, India Calling!!

- Ch!ntan