I had never met anyone from Eritrea (picture left of the Red Sea port in Masswa, Eritrea) before coming to the US. I had no idea about this East African nation, its history of struggle, how good-looking its women are or the fact that its food is a close cousin of ours. But that is changing. Today, a faraway country is no longer that far away. It is only a phone call, email or a plane ride away. Often it is not even that far, distances are diminished with a Google search. These days it is no surprise to find a foreigner working in the next cubicle to yours even in India. And it is easy to know so much more about the people from across the world. But is it really?

One thing the long-drawn-out American election race has taught me is that Americans are hard to understand. Just when you think they like the status-quo and are definitely not ready for a woman President, Hillary Clinton goes and wins most of the big states in the Democratic nominee race. Fine you say, they are biased and will never vote for an African-American President. But then Barrack Obama wins majority of the states and starts leading the nomination process for the Democrats. Well of course, the Americans like their Presidents to be young and good-looking (John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, et al). But that can’t be true either, since John McCain who won the Republican nomination is over 70!

We live in an inter-connected world with growing curiosity about other cultures. A short trip to China and one would like to believe that one has learnt the intricacies of the most populous land. But is it really that easy to understand any culture?

I am constantly asked questions about my country of origin. Is India a poor country with high rates of illiteracy? Does the caste system affect people’s lives, is there still a segment of “untouchables”? Being a woman, certain other questions are also inevitable — does dowry still exist in India, does it really lead to bride-burning, are boys preferred over girls? If I had to answer based on my own personal experience, I would say no to all the questions, for they have had no adverse impact on my life in India. But in full honesty can I really say no to all the above? Do I not know of the large-scale poverty, the rural-urban divide, the many who follow caste-lines or the parents who sell their all to provide an acceptable dowry for their daughters? The fact is all of the above questions have multiple answers, depending on who is answering the questions.

I look back on the stereotypes I believed about American society before I moved here — multiple marriages, bra-burning feminists, abandoned elderly parents living in old-age homes, and so many more. Each of these has been proven wrong by what I see around me — long-lasting marriages with a brood of children, women trying to conform and move away from the initial ideas of radical feminism and long weekends spent with grandparents. But does that mean that there is no truth to these American stereotypes? I guess it depends on who you are asking.

Just like India, America too offers many truths. And while my first taste of Eritrean food in the US with boiled egg floating in thick chicken jhol may tempt me to believe that Eritrean food is influenced by Indian cuisine, research reveals an entirely different truth.

Our understanding of others is often that of a sound bite. It is not easy to digest the selected depiction of India in Western media — of poverty, illiteracy and women’s suppression. Neither is the other side of the representation, of India being a land of software programmers with country bumpkin accents any closer to reality. Therefore, it would have been so much easier and satisfying for me if all the pre-conceived ideas I had about America were true. But they are not.

The reality is no society is homogenous and the fact that there are multiple truths everywhere is what makes living in a foreign land, visiting one or even Googling one infinitely more interesting.