Two places at once

Living in a foreign country is difficult.  But not necessarily because of the culture shock, the customs, the driving, the completely different language, the food, etc, etc.  That happens no matter where you go,  like when one moves from North Carolina to California, for example.  California is like a whole different country, where most of the people haven't even heard of a place called North Carolina, or if they have, it was probably just something made up in a Hollywood movie, like the American Revolution or the American Civil War; either way they really don't care.  The most difficult part about leaving one's home to go to a distant and exotic land is that you never really leave home.  No matter how far you go, you always maintain some sort of presence back home, whether you want to or not.  Most people don't want to leave behind or forget home, and so carry a piece of it with them wherever they go.  Perhaps people with the easiest transition are criminals fleeing from a country to avoid prosecution, where all the problems of beginning a new life in a new country far outweigh the alternative of a long prison term back home. 
And so it is with me.  I am living in a foreign land, but part of me is still back home, dealing with issues as if I were back home, and at the same time dealing with all the challenges here.  All of the issues that I left back home are still with me, not to mention all of the new challenges that I face by living in India.  I still have bills to pay, I still have relationships to maintain; the joys and celebrations, the worries and fears, are all still a part of me no matter how far away I go.  The thing is I am not trying to avoid them, and I don't think I could even if I tried.  The difficulty thus lies in the fact that one cannot necessarily give up the pieces of home and at the same time be open to a foreign culture.  You can be open and accepting of a foreign culture, but something about where you came from often gets in the way, or vice versa.  The trick is how to balance the two.  It feels like I am in two different places at once, and each place is pulling at me as in an epic game of tug-o-war.  Perhaps it would have been easier if I had robbed a bank before coming to India.