A Story a Day #45: Santha Rama Rau

April 1st, 2020

"Who Cares?"

Santha Rama Rau

Two young Indians, who have recently returned from studying in America, bond over this commonality. They begin having lunch together to remember their time abroad and complain about how India is. One day, Anand explains that his parents have invited a girl to stay at their house, a distant cousin. He knows right away what they are up to and that they will try and get them married. He detests this and acts rude towards this girl and complains about her often. All of them meet for tea and the narrator finds the girl quite pleasant, but Anand sulks the whole time. This goes on for some time until Anand says he is going to New York for a trip. At the same time, the girl says she will be returning home. Later, they confess their love for each other and both of them decide to stay and get married.

Just to clarify, that is the name of the story. I am not just being snarky because it is April 1st. I felt really strongly towards this story mostly because of the bond these two characters share over a shared experience of living abroad. Living abroad can put you in a very strange sort of limbo where people from either country don't understand what you've gone through. When you find someone in a similar situation, the bond is instant. This is probably why some of the best friends I've made while living overseas were also expats themselves. They understand things that nobody else understands. Another thing that is played out truthfully is how we see Anand slowly returning to Indian culture despite constantly speaking against it. While many people resent their home culture, and swear they will never return to its ways, they often do. It can be really sad to lose the specialness you may have acquired by living abroad, but this is simply how it goes.