Her marriage was the reason she left the state of her birth and came into the big city with many dreams. She accepted her husband’s house as her own; his relatives, friends, neighbours were all hers too. She adopted not only the people but also the culture, language and all that would make her become an integral part of this family and be identified as one of them. No one thought of her as an outsider anymore. Now, she was an important cog in the machinery of her new family even though she had joined it after 20 years of her birth.
Time went by, she not only adjusted but also settled well into her family. The frequency of her visits to her parents’ house was limited to functions. Her parents called her a migratory bird who visited briefly and returned back. Time went by, her own children were about to fly the nest when tragedy struck. She lost her husband and with it she also lost her identity. The in-law’s questioned why she was there since her husband was no more. The parents were reluctant to let their migratory bird settle with them.
She felt like the migrants who were welcome for the growth of their adopted country and were treated as refugees and a burden during the economic meltdown. She had changed herself for her new family but she had not let her sense of righteousness change at any cost. She decided to live neither with her parents nor her in-law’s and moved out to live on her own, with her children.
If migrants can make a nation prosper by toiling hard and the remittance that they send makes their own country grow, they can create a utopia for themselves too were they not limited by geographical boundaries.