At first everything seems exciting and even much better than at home! The people are nicer, environment is cleaner and so on. This is a tourist stage when people don’t stay long enough to confront problems and experience cultural shock. All you do is enjoy the surroundings and admire new culture. Depending on a person this stage can last from couple of days to couple of months.

During next period the real problems begin. You might find some things unfamiliar and frustrating, you might feel lonely and eventually start missing home. This is the time when you look for people from your own country. You get together and complain about new culture, inconveniences, rules and regulations you are confronted with. You remember bright moments from your motherland and perceive country of your new residence through stereotypes.

Now is the time to either pull yourself together and adjust to the new environment, or to move back home. Everyone has it’s own recipes of how to deal with difficulties, but some general tips can make this process easier.
Firstly, the key to successful integration is language, language and once again language! The faster you learn it the faster you are included in the social environment. You start to understand what is going on around you and form your own opinion about it. Then you meet locals and eventually make new friends. They will admire you efforts and help you out in case you need  it. Many immigrants find it easier to integrate there own culture into the new one. It’s good as long as it does not lead to strong differentiation, after all you try to integrate not to separate. Probably the best advise is to try to stay positive!

If you are able to go through this process, you become a new person, bicultural with a an access to the wisdom and experience of both cultures. You are a tough person with a strong competitive advantage over many. Well, anyway, everyone finds their own pluses and minuses in bicultural identity.

The biggest challenge will be when you come back to your own country. The trick is that your family and friends expect you to be same old they used to know. They don’t consider how much you have went through, learned and changed. You might be misunderstood and feel like a stranger in your own country.

But if you are open-minded and curious individual, with a good sense of humor and a strong sense of self the transition will be easier for you. Don’t get scared before you tried something! There are always right people who will support you and help you out if your are in troubles.
What is life all about anyways?! Everything is worth trying!
So, are you ready?

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Traditionally, this has been one of many harvest days in India. Due to the geography and size of India, this festival is celebrated for innumerable reasons depending on the climate, agricultural environment, cultural background and location.
There this another intresting story in the Hindu mythology, which say that on this day Surya (Sun) visits the house of his son Shani(Saturn), who is the ruler of Makar Rashi (Zodiac Capricorn). Though the father & son duo did not get along nicely, the Sun God made it a point to meet his son on this day. He, in fact, comes to his son’s house, for a month. This day thus symbolizes the importance of the special relationship between father & son. It is the son who has the responsibility to carry his fathers dream and the continuity of the family forward.
This super cool ‘Kite –Flying –Syndrome’ we have for the day continues by the night when instead of kites people leave lite-up kites (called Kandila’s here) in the sky marking the end of a festival or may be welcoming the setting-in of longer days, leaving behind the gloominess of winters. But you know most of the kids just cannot let the hangover vanish. Following days after the 14th are more adventurous, especially in the city area of Jaipur, where the streets are crammed, roofs of the houses are common; traffic is in full swing, but these tiny brave hearts manage to run a marathon to own a kite. They are able to dodge the traffic, jump from the wall, and get into a brawl – just to own a kite!! Lot of them gets hurt, but the aim is to collect as many kites as you can. For many of us it may be chaos but for me it is Spirit of India!