2 years

Its 2 years since I first left India ( and first came here ).

I could write a long essay on how its been or I could put up a chart that summarizes how I have felt about this country – its people, politics, economy, laws, indulgences and hardships – what I choose to call my yankyphile index.

I love numbers, graphs and curves that describe a varying quantity – so I put up a pithy little graphical representation – the chart you are seeing below or perhaps saw even before you read this. Besides, the essay none you would read anyway. So here goes the graph : I am using July 2004 – my last complete month in India as the baseline.

A close look at the graph strikes me that drawing a graph of my own ‘satisfaction index’ summarizing how I feel about myself, who I am, whats happening to me and where I think I am heading – would strongly correlation ( with some departures) with the above graph.

I then face what is sometimes called an identification problem – which we come across quite often. An example from here.

If those who run regularly are less likely to have a heart attack, does that prove that running regularly is good for the heart? Or does it simply indicate that those with a strong heart and good health otherwise are more likely to enjoy running and do it more regularly?

For our current situation the questions to ask would be – is it because I feel good about “about myself, who I am, whats happening to me and where I think I am” that I feel good about America Or is it that I feel good about the place and my place in it that I feel good about myself. I dont know, infact my act of plotting this graph itself may have caused the two effects to mix up because its impossible to separate the two effects. So I would think its both – the former mostly dominating the latter. So my problem is not as good as an example as the one I quoted above.