By the Editor: Siddharth Sehgal

 With Trump taking office, I am motivated to write on an issue that Indian news channels are going crazy over, with bold headlines, the websites and TV’s are filled with reports of how Trump will kick Indians out, how H1B visas will cease to exist, how people will be shown red card instead of green and what not. I have a colleague who has taken this issue to heart, what if this happens, what if that happens and you can clearly see the lines of worry appearing on his forehead. “We’ll go back” I simply shrugged, “it’s not a matter of life and death”. And trust me it isn’t, it will not be the end of the world.

Having lived in US on bare subsistence with gnawing hunger at times, I know how hard life can be. Having lost so much in life’s struggle, it sometimes makes you to immune to hardships and rejections, losses don’t seem losses anymore. But I don’t expect others to have seen the life from my angle, equally yet, what rules American government makes is its own business. Trump is elected the president to work for Americans, so whatever rule they come up with has to be accepted. Worrying about it will not change anything so why worry at all.

Now coming back to “issue of going back”, frankly speaking I know what I’ll do whenever I go back, today, tomorrow, next year or next decade. The struggle, the experience, the skills that I have gained here is far more valuable than all the money in the world. There is lot more to life than dollars and it’s only a misfortune that people loose themselves in this blind quest. You’ll be fine if you get to live in US and you’ll be fine too if you have to go back. News channels don’t give a damn about visa’s to tell you the truth, they care about hype and ratings, nothing more, nothing less. Have confidence in your abilities, you can make a better life wherever you are. Life sometimes gives you chances from unexpected ways, from bitter rejections may come best of successes. So accept what may come with gladness because it will come anyway. And India is doing very well now; yes there will be bumps in the road, yes there will be hardships, none said life is easy but yet we always find something hopeful about every situation.

We’ll have lots of problems in life and a lot more will come but visa is not one of them.