(1/2)”I had returned back to Nepal after a few months of stay in New York. The first few weeks here, and I knew this place for not for me. I knew I was going back home. After I returned, I started working but people around me seemed surprised. Here I was, who could be working in NY and could be easily earning dollars, toiling away in Nepal, was the reasoning for many right? They didn’t say anything but I could see it in their eyes – their disbelief as to how one can ‘abandon’ such a life and chose to struggle in Nepal. The whole narrative on how once you land in the US, you are made, is BS. You struggle here too, sometimes more than you do back home. So, tired of seeing the disappointment back home, I returned to the US again. After a few years off my share of struggle, I am able to run a small business, serving the Nepali community here as a Paralegal. I met my wife here and we have a son now who goes to school. But life is so fast here. No one has time, everyone is running, somewhere for something, I don’t know what that is. And because you spend so much time at work and because you are tired to keep up with the pace and provide for your family at the same time, all your frustrations bottle up and you don’t have an outlet. You become bitter. It is a different culture you see. There is a lot of materialism in the west. People put on a mask and it is really difficult to express yourself openly. And because of all this, you go home tired and frustrated and you vent out on your family. Not because you don’t love them or anything, but because you have no where to let the steam off.” (Man Mohan Singh Ghimire, Jackson Heights, New York) #SONinUSA