All this travel requires him to a lot of changes in his lifestyle. He is exposed to different lands, different cultures, different people and different food. This can be bewildering at first for the average Indian, brought up in a traditional environment. He finds himself continuously adapting to the new environs of his temporary home and work place. He finds himself starting afresh at all places. It is a challenge of sorts, and interesting.

He gradually finds himself weaned away from his culture and his roots that nurtured him. He can no longer hope to join his family in all the festivals and celebrations of his homeland, the basis of the social fabric. He finds himself participating in the alien country's customs and festivals. At first, there is this curiosity factor that leads him to participate and before soon, it is part of his life.

And then there is this food. In an alien land it is not always possible to find the food that he eats in his home. He is forced to start 'experimenting' with 'foreign' food and gradually, it becomes part of his daily diet. He starts enjoying it.

Slowly he breaks out of his mould. Without knowing it, he starts shedding his cultural roots, in an effort to survive. He is no longer tied to anything ; the roots that nourished him have been broken away with. The cultural shackles that bound him have broken free No longer is he constrained by his roots. He is at home in different cultures.

It can be argued as to whether it is worth it. He is a nomad without a permanent home, without a place to go to permanently. He does not belong anywhere. He can survive anywhere and in that sense he is a world person. On the flip, it has its benefits. Geographical barriers these days are breaking, and the world increasingly become a global village; distances are getting smaller and smaller and the world is getting closer. Travel between nations in increasing, driven by tourism or by exchanges between the nations at all levels, cultural as well as economic. With the borders opening up, each country is invaded by alien customs and cultures, which gradually assimilate with the local culture and become a part of one's life. To an average Indian, this is not new, having been exposed to this since ages, what with the Greek and Mongol and the Mughal and French and English invasions. And these days the television forms a powerful medium bringing in different cultures directly to ones living room. Its not very far away when the cultures will start blending, old customs will start dissolving and new customs will form, bringing in a new culture that encompasses nations rather than being confined with in the boundaries of one nation. It is only a matter of time, and the Indian software engineer will already be at home.