Two Lives

Part-1
It was a bad day. It started with a headline in the newspaper. 'H1B visa quota exceeded in 1 day'. "What the hell, we work so hard here and America doesn't even have consideration to let us live our lives peacefully" thought the Vimla. She had been eagerly waiting for the new year so that she could restart working. It had been a long wait, but worthwhile now that their son was in school and she had free time to start thinking about supplementing the family income. She had even managed to get a sponsor for the H1B after long process, even agreeing to drive 2 hours one way to work. And now all the hopes were dashed. She was cursed to this wait-for-husband-and-kid routine for one more year. And over that, the plans of buying a new car will have to be postponed.

But what wretched life this was. She could not work. Ram could not change his job. The expenses were rising. And the forever illusory 'Green Card' was taking forever to be granted. She had just heard that the backlogs were enough to last 5 years. And this was going to increase with time. Without the green card, they could not settle in life, could not buy a house, get scholarships for their children.

The archaic laws were forcing them to lead a life of relative poverty and was unsettling. Why was that happening to them. Most of her friends in the US had got their green card, bought a house, sending the children to best of the schools and now even planning for a second home. She took another dose of anti-depressent, hoping that she will be well by the time her son returns home, cursing the US and its weird laws at the same time.

Part-2
It was a bad day. It started with traffic snarl in the morning. The maid had taken another day off without informing. Vimla was already late for the office. So many problems. The new home they had bought was farther than her office and road worse than thought earlier. It would have been so nice had her husband Shyam took up the job offer in US. She would have a comfortable life like her sister Bimla. How nice it would be to be out of this traffic and cruising on a free-way. It was year since she had started working again after a long break. Now with the new job of Ram and the additional income she was earning dint heart in any way. They had a bigger home, sending their son to one of the most expensive school in the city, and also managed to buy a new bigger car. But still the heat was killing her. The car she was driving dint have an AC and the roads were jammed. Why did India has so much population. Why did Shyam ignores her nagging. It was such a comfortable life her sister was leading. And she took an anti-depressent from her purse and drank a bit of water. Cursing under her breathe, she started honking hoping that the additional noise will clear the traffic.