Two Countries, One Life: Encounter of Cultures

Who am I? asks the immigrant in a new country. Do I belong to my country of origin or to my country of adoption? Which way do my feelings run? What team do I want to win, asks the Indian settled in England watching England play India in cricket, the Indian team or the English team? Where are my loyalties? Which is now my language, my mother tongue, my culture, my tradition?

This very double belonging can broaden horizons and enrich life. Two languages, two backgrounds, two cultures, two countries, in one life. That is two lives in one, if we find how to weave them together, and how to make of immigration a two-way process by which both sides, the newcomers and the old-timers, become ready to learn from one another. Enticing promise of a richer existence. This is the blessing of immigration.