From India to U.S. and Back Again, Without Love
Indians love to flock to the United States. Better pay, better living conditions, and a giant middle finger of the American Dream.
Growing up in a 90’s-kids-that-still-didn’t-know-what-to-do-in-2000s era, I was blown away by how much advice we got offered on a silver platter wiped with a tissue from a buffet at wedding receptions.
“Become an engineer.”
“Pursue chartered accountancy.”
“Get a government job.”
“You’re better off as a teacher.”
All this filtered through the teeth that still had remnants of cumin and coriander and a yellowing that I hope was just turmeric and Arhar dal (or what you might call Pigeon Pea. I won’t. That sounds disgusting).
Sound advice. And among them were also the rather sharp peppers of going abroad. It might sound broad, but the only abroad the boardwalk of which we wanted to broaden our shoes on was the United States and its English market. A pursuit to build a better life overseas in Amrika, or America—the land that gets its name from an Italian foreigner.
So, we cooked our pots and wiped our teeth clean with our tongues to be trim for the work that was cut out for us. The land of opportunity, of freedom, of the American dream. And many of us did achieve that. With their families, their friends, or their own sheer will (and skill).
Looking back, those were the days. While I wasn’t keen on, or ever went to, the U.S., I’d be lying if I said I didn’t swallow some seeds of that ever-blooming dream.
But that dream has been crashing for decades. The world knows it. The Americans know it. Indians? I think the opportunity to ship oneself to that dreamscape still lies open on every buffet table. America is not what it used to be. Was it ever what it was portrayed to be? That’s another debate.
Yes, India has its flaws, particularly with infrastructure. That doesn’t mean the American dream is an all-changing, socialist life force that benefits everyone. And thanks to one person, this false flag is coming down from the high mast.
Trump has been a godsend.
On the Altar
Did that last line make you do a double-take? Let me help you come down to my level.
Trump is a godsend in bringing out the worst in people. He’s painting the true freedom colours America has been bathing in for almost a decade And I say decade because I want to canonically set the shit-hit-the-fan date to when the annoying orange decided to get elected the first time.
There’s no trumping his nothingburger speeches and arguments against common sense. Swiftly likened to the second coming of Christ, he is the ascended manifestation of the general zeitgeist of a very large majority. Proudly nationalist. Proudly capitalist. Proudly racist. Proudly con artist.
And with the infamous president’s second coming in the Oval Office, which likely might never end, the Easter celebrations have only just begun.
What does that spell for Indians?
While it might be astronomical (or astrological, given the context) to think that Indians played any sensible part in his election (not NRIs, no. Those who did vote for him . . . you brought this on yourselves), I am reminded of vivid images of a certain temple. A temple that was erected after a vision surfaced in the minds of one Bussa Kirshna in Telangana, and how he made it his duty to offer prayers and offerings to Trump’s effigy.
Sadly, after a long spell of anxiety and grief towards Trump’s illnesses, Bussa passed away. But surely, the man himself would acknowledge the godhood bestowed in him by this Indian and improve relations with the country from which come people that stoke his ego?
Of course he will. Those 50% tariffs are the godly boon he’s blessed us Indians with.
What did I say? He’s a godsend.
Utopia Without You
Ah, the glorious H-1B visa, the hall pass allowing Indians to gatecrash the U.S., study to build themselves better, and flourish under its capitalist economy.
Only recently, Mike Lee, the Republican senator for Utah, suggested the idea of pausing these visas in favour of hiring Americans. And why not? The Americans of tomorrow, educated in only the curated pages of history, taught the ethics from model Republicans, will definitely have all the checks of critical thinking and essential skills that tech companies need, right?
This exclusionary tactic is a carefully laid foundation for anti-immigration. The White House, of course, will chalk this up to being a punishment for India buying oil from Russia and feeding its war machine in Ukraine, even though the U.S. continues to humiliate Zelensky and aid Russia from behind the doors. No amount of makeup can hide the stain on Trump’s hand coming from these under-the-table negotiations, Mr. Trump. It’s from Russia, with love.
But the whitest of houses has another rung to climb on the Project 2025 ladder. To truly make America great again, they need to be strict with who stays a legal citizen. While ICE continues to sweep the country’s porch, lawn, and backyard clean, it’s the president himself trumpeting the death knell: you have to be of sound moral character.
What does that entail? In the words of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, there should be “a holistic assessment of an alien’s behaviour, adherence to societal norms, and positive contributions that affirmatively demonstrate good moral character.”
Alien. That’s what non-citizens have been reduced to, as updated on February 26, 2025, by USCIS. The agency’s chief spokesperson, Matthew Tragesser, states, “Immigration benefits—including to live and work in the United States—remain a privilege, not a right.”
That is—and I’m reading between, under, and over the lines—immigration benefits remain a white privilege, not a brown or black right.
Four Score and Seven Years Ago
I think, with this piece published, I’m never getting into the good immigration or citizenship books of the Trump administration. The America I remember from my yonder days is very different from the America I see now.
Not that racism ever stopped being an issue of, for, and by the country. But what we see today is the product of a fundamentalist religious revolution that’s backpedalling growth, equality, and progress all in the name of a God. Wait, did I just describe Afghanistan?
I remain within India, eating my fill from a wedding buffet, and ready to advise the next generation of hapless youths, cumin and turmeric in teeth and all. I rely on the Gettysburg Address from Lincoln to deliver my obituary to the dead American dream:
Four score and seven years ago, the United States of America was facing a recession. Only a year later, the Second World War broke out, in which it later fought to overthrow the fascist forces of Nazi Germany. Today, while the American economy appears to be stable, the tariffs risk geopolitical and global economic instability. A war continues on the European horizon. But there are no fascist Nazis there.
They are within the prime administration of a nation that used to be great. It’s also ironic that these people, questioning others’ moral character, are morally bankrupt. But they’re riding the pro-Christian, neo-Nazi wave and sucking dry the coffers of the common man.
The White House is finally living up to its name.
