Comparing two cities

What thoughts would pass through your mind if you were needing to relocate to another culture?  Would you be filled with excitement or apprehension?

The play Manakottai reflected on these questions in a humourous way.

The play contrasted two families.  One family with two children were leaving Chennai, India for Sydney, Australia.  Another family had one child, and was leaving Sydney, Australia for Chennai, India.  Both families transit at Changi Airport, Singapore for a time.

Both families are Tamil.  They both have a teenage daughter.  The family of four also had a younger son.  The parents have lived in Chennai before.

The family going to Sydney looked forward to a culture where the mother has the freedom not to be housebound.  The family returning to Chennai was looking forward to a culture where the mother did not have to spend hours in traffic driving, and could concentrate more on cooking Indian dishes for her family.

The family going to Sydney was looking forward to higher wages.  The family going to Chennai was looking forward to a lower cost of living.

The family going to Sydney was looking forward to less congested housing.  The family going to Chennai was looking forward to more connectedness.  We are able to laugh at the fact that the family coming from Sydney had a doctor in the neighbourhood but did not know it.

One of the issues that confronted me were the teenage daughters.  The one who had gotten used to the Sydney environment did not want to return to her parents' homeland.  She thought it embarrassing to have to dress up in Indian clothes and have a plaited hairstyle instead of wearing shorts and having her hair dyed red.  She did not like the idea of living in a city where there were power outages every 15 minutes with high humidity.  She preferred to be with the friends she had come to connect with in Sydney.

The lass from Chennai too loved her friends in Chennai.  She loved that place in spite it being so different from Sydney.

Are we like this?  We love our friends and our conveniences, and do not wish to leave?  Especially after experiencing our adolescence with these peers?

How would you contrast these cultural differences?  Would you look forward to change, or prefer to be comfortable in the environment you are used to?  Why do people undergo the stresses of such changes in our global society these days?

How would you feel if you were forced to leave the environment you have become used to, and be expected to live in a different one?