ANDREI
After this move, I had a lot of questions and I found information about life of the real Kunal. The real story is terrible.
Kunal’s story shows how important it is to tell the truth, even if its very painful. How one little lie becomes big and creates a lot of problems.
The fact is that Kunal’s attempt was to achieve his parents’ American Dream, but not his own dream.
The result was deep depression, a lost relationship and the loss of Kunal’s trust of his parents.
VASILLI
Separation
When I read Kunal’s story, I felt it very strongly. I am a very empathetic person, and his experience of being separated from his parents touched me deeply because my situation is similar in some ways.
I have not seen my mother in person for almost four years. And right now I understand that I probably will not see her for another couple of years. In the beginning it was the hardest part – you realize that you cannot simply buy a ticket and hug your mom. But I am lucky to live in a time when technology is so developed.
We can video call each other every day, so I can see her face, hear her voice, and know how she is doing. It is not the same as being together, but it makes the distance much smaller.
How did I cope with it? I stopped thinking of the separation as permanent, and I started focusing on staying connected every day. Over time, it got a little easier because it became our normal routine.
What did I learn? I learned not to take the people close to me for granted, and I learned that distance doesn’t break a real connection – but it just changes how you show it.
That is why I understand Kunal so well. Ten and a half years without his parents – I cannot even imagine how heavy that was.
How is your life? – Fine!
He was not honest at all. His real life was very hard – he was working at the hotel every day, living with an abusive uncle, and later he even went to jail and foster care. His goals of going to college and becoming a neurosurgeon never happened. But he said “It’s fine” because he didn’t want his mother to worry. She was far away in India and could not help him, so telling her the truth would only hurt her.
I understand him completely, because I do exactly the same thing. I video call my mother every day, and of course she asks me every single day how I am doing. And every single day I answer that everything is great, everything is fine. Naturally, things are not always fine — but I never tell her about it.
Why? For the same reason as Kabir –
She is far away and she cannot help me, so my problems would only give her pain and sleepless nights. I would rather carry it myself.
I think many people who have immigrated will understand me. It is a very difficult path, and “I’m fine” becomes the easiest way to protect the people you love. That is why people use this phrase so often — sometimes it is not a lie, it is a way of saying, “Don’t worry about me. I can handle it.
DENIS
Separation
In my life, I also had to be separated not only from my parents, but also from all my friends, people I knew, and basically my whole previous life.
At the beginning of 2022, I had to leave my home country and move to Turkey. I spent a couple of years there without my family, friends, or anyone I knew, starting my life again from zero.
After that, I came here to America. Once again, I was very far from my family, on another continent, in a completely new country with a different culture, language, and way of life. My journey here was very difficult, but I am very happy to be here.
The hardest part for me is not having my family and the people I love here with me. Everything else, I believe, can be solved.
YUKE
How is your life? – Fine!
He was not honest with his feelings. He was not fine. He said that because he did not want his parents worried about him, and he had a lot of grievances and disappointments during so many years. He didn’t know how to talk about his life in a few words. The second reason was he knew his life wouldn’t be changed even if he said he was not fine.
At the same time, a person could become silent if he or she experienced a lot of difficulties, setbacks and failures. So he just said I’m fine.
His goals of college and becoming a neurosurgeon weren’t his real goals. Of course he had a hard time. He had to deal with the difficulties of living, managing, studying and the irresponsible uncle by himself. He didn’t have any support. It was very hard for a kid and a teenager. If those goals were really his goals, he wouldn’t forget them and would achieve them after the difficulty passed. But he changed his goals and became a real manager in the end of the video. I’m not sure if he continues to seek his goals after his parents come. If he continues, I’ll say he doesn’t forget his goals. He still very young!
The director avoided the cruelest part – he was in a jail cell and kicked out of school at 15 years of age. The society and school didn’t support him and destroyed him with the cruel life. I understand why he gave up his goals. He was just a small dot in the big world.
When I say I’m fine, that depends. One situation is I am really good. Another situation is I am not familiar with the person I’m talking with, so I just say it in a polite way, as a small talk. We don’t need to explain the details of our lives in small talk. People use “I am fine” often because it is just a great and easy way to respond.
Kunal says, “I’m my own man now. . .”
I am my own man now means he can only trust and depend on himself. No body can help and support him.
If you are your own man, you can be independent. You don’t need to depend on others. As a person, you must be your own man, even if you have friends, relatives, parents, husband, wife or kids. Just like Kunal, he did have parents and an uncle, but they didn’t support him. He did have friends too, but they got him into the jail.
I am my own person. I made every decision of my life by myself. I made money for my life. Of course my mom supported me very well. But I was not dependent on her. So I am my own man.
NADEZHDA P.
How is your life? – Fine!
He said this because his parents had returned; the past was behind him, he was hoping for better times, and the future seemed brighter. I believe he was truthful and honest about his feelings.
His younger dreams and goals did not matter. Kabir’s difficult life shows that life can be changed in one minute.
In my view, the phrase “Everything is fine” means that my family is healthy, has a job, a home, and so on – and I am looking forward to a better future. Everyone is used to this phrase, when the bad time is lost in the past, and don’t share their difficulties.
Separation
Kabir was separated from his parents at a young age. It’s difficult for him. He was a child, and he had to deal with adult problems. Thank the Lord God for saving him from a bad path. 
I left my parents when I was 18 years old. I was a young girl. I arrived in a big city from a small one. I wanted to study in the best university, but unfortunately I didn’t get into university this year. I needed to look for a job. I had no relatives in this city. I was looking for the announcement in the newspaper about the job which included housing.
It was a difficult time, especially because I was running out of money. The Lord also protected me, too. In those years there was no Internet, no Skype- there were only letters. The letter took one week to get there and one week to come back. And I wrote to my parents that everything was fine with me, because in the situation where I really needed help, they couldn’t help me anyway. I had to handle everything myself.
I didn’t manage the hotel, I only managed my own life without my parents!!
GYZYL
How is your life? – Fine!
Kabir replies “I am fine” because he didn’t actually want to answer that question. He didn’t want to upset his parents. He wasn’t fine. At the age of 11, any child needs their parents. Especially a child who is left without parents in a foreign country during childhood, having to live with a harsh uncle and running a motel.
Even while responding “I am fine”, the person shuts themselves off from others and does not let anyone into their soul.
Kunal says, “I’m my own man now. . .”
This expression “I am own man now” means that someone is an independent person. A happy person is one who can say “I am own man now”. He builds his day, his life exactly as he sees fit. People I know say that I am a self-sufficient person. Probably because I have multiple degrees. I am well- versed in many things.
Personally, however, people cannot be entirely masters of themselves; they are always dependent on something.
TATIANA
How is your life? – Fine!
This is one of the most frequently used phrase among many polite expressions. This phrase is meaningless in most contexts where it is used, yet it conveys politeness and goodwill, serving a polite way to avoid going into potential details.
Kabir’s reply “It’s fine” to his mother’s question, “How is your life?” conveys the depth of the emotional rift with his parents caused by their long absence. Over the past twelve years, he has endured so much suffering and experienced so many events that he simply does not know what or how to begin telling his story or whether he should even go into the details.
Kabir’s goal of college to be a neurosurgeon is really his goal. I think he would like to come back to achievement of this goal.
Separation
I had a painful separation in my life: 13 years ago. My son left for the USA to continue his education. The separation was not absolute. I visited my son two times every year. Being apart impacted on my mood every day, I thought about my son living alone in another country and the people around him. My work and my cat Winner helped me get through it.
This experience taught me that family should always be close and our entire lives are built on family values.
DHARSHANI
How is your life? – Fine!
As a child, I was taught that if someone asks you “How are you?”, you should say “I am fine, thank you.” For many years, “I am fine, thank you” was the standard answer I gave people. At some point, I learned to sound positive, so even if I wasn’t feeling fine, I still answered, “I am fine, thank you.” Very late in life, I realized this is the answer we give when we are in a situation where we are neither doing really well nor really bad.
I feel for Kunal and his mother here. The concern in her question was so real yet painful because he had to go through everything all alone and could not succeed in what he wanted. Kunal’s response, “I’m fine,” sounds painful because he could not achieve his dream yet, but he doesn’t want his mother to feel his pain. So he kept it simple with “I’m fine,” just like how many of us adults bury our real pain behind those words.
Separation 
I had to face this situation as a grown-up when I was 19 years old. I was awarded a scholarship by the Indian government to pursue my higher studies in India. It was the first time I had to leave my parents and siblings from a small town named Kotagala in Sri Lanka to go to a big city, Pune, in India.
It was not at all like my excitement when I first received my scholarship confirmation; this became the most painful period for me. For the first time, I realized how deep my love for my family was. As a teenager, I always wanted to get out of the house and build my own life, but when the universe blessed me with my wish, it felt like a curse I had asked for. I cried for almost 6 months saying I wanted to return home.
I did not own a mobile phone at that time. I had to place International Direct Dial (IDD) calls from telephone booths and didn’t have the luxury of calling my family every day. However, I managed to save some money from my other expenses to call them once a week and write long letters saying over and over that I wanted to return home.
My parents and both my younger brother and sister wrote back to me using convincing, loving words. They told me I must hold on to that scholarship because it was a rare opportunity in our lives that would help me achieve big dreams. At one point, my father said, “Okay, come back home, but you cannot regret your decision ever in life.” That was the moment I decided to stay.
I stopped telling them I was coming home. Instead, I used “I am fine” in all my communications to them, but I continued to cry alone while reading their letters over and over at a lonely temple or in a church when no people were around. That was the only way I found some peace from missing my family. Eventually, I adjusted to life there for three years, successfully making friends and focusing on my studies.
Upon returning to the island, I started a job in Colombo, still away from my family but visiting them once in a while. Now, I am far, far away from home, but technology and the internet have minimized those worries, and we have all learned to live our lives. Today, the thing I miss the most is the letters we used to write to each other.
IRINA R.
How is your life? – Fine!
At the end of the video Kabir said “It’s fine” but he definitely wasn’t fine at all. We saw tears in his eyes. He preferred not to talk to his parents about how he actually felt that moment because the emotional connection between him and his parents was ruined. From the age of 11, when he was a kid, to 21, when he became a young adult, he grew up alone, dealt with all the issues and made all the decisions on his own.
In the final scene of the film he is sitting near his parents and watching TV as it was 10 years ago but it’s not the same. He is filled with deep sadness that his childhood dreams of going to college and becoming a surgeon never came true.
People often say “I’m fine”, and I am not an exception, as a part of small talk. It became a standard phrase when you just want to be polite and you are not going to talk about your true feelings.
Separation
I moved to the USA to live closer to my daughter. It’s a great happiness, of course, but at the same time, it’s overshadowed by separation from my extended family and friends. My mother, my brother, my cousins and all my nieces and nephews live on the other side of the Earth.
Thank God we have different means of communication now and can easily talk to each other as long as we want using video calls. It really helps to stay in touch with people who you love and makes the situation easier. I just hope that I will have an opportunity to fly to Russia at least once a year.
VERONIKA
Has anyone ever forbidden you to do things you really wanted to do?
After high school, I wanted to study something related to chemistry and mathematics. However, my mom is an economist, and she really wanted me to follow in her footsteps, so she made me apply to an economics university.
I kept asking her to let me choose my own path, and eventually, on the second-to-last day before the application deadline, I took my documents back from the economics university and transferred them to a technology
Looking back, I think this was probably my first big experience of separating myself from my parents and making an important decision on my own. Before that, I had always been a very obedient and well-behaved child, so it was a big moment for me and hard also.
Separation
The most difficult separation in my life was when I left Belarus for political reasons. I understood that once I crossed the border, I might not have the opportunity to return to my home country for a very long time.
The hardest part for me is probably being separated from my younger sister. There is about a 12-year age difference between us, and I have always felt that she was almost like my own child because I watched her grow up. Now I can’t be there for her physically or support her in everyday life the way I used to.
We also have a seven-hour time difference between the United States and Belarus, so even having a simple phone call can be difficult because we are living in completely different parts of the day.
I didn’t see my family for almost two years. When I finally saw them again, I realized something unexpected: sometimes seeing the people you love after such a long separation makes saying goodbye even harder. At the same time, I know that being able to see them again was a very positive thing, and now we are planning to travel in neutral country in the future.
This experience changed me a lot.
When I was a student, I dreamed about studying abroad and living in different countries. Now, after being separated from my family, one of my biggest dreams is simply to be able to return to my hometown someday and hug my all family.
I think I became more independent because of this experience, but at the same time, I also realized how important my family is to me.
ANTONINA
Kunal’s uncle told him that he could not become a doctor. . .
Kunal Sah remembered it for the rest of his life. In this situation, the fact that the boy was beaten is very important. I would probably run away from home or come up with a way to take revenge. There were times in my life when I was forbidden to do what I wanted. But I wasn’t beaten. Therefore, in my opinion, these situations cannot be compared.
How is your life? – Fine!
He said it because his mother expected this answer from him. It wasn’t true. It is expected that the answer will be “I’m fine” which does not make any sense. I don’t think becoming a neurosurgeon was his real goal. Children may not have a clear idea of what it is. Maybe he just found this word in the dictionary.
NAIARA
Kunal says, “I’m my own man now. . .”
When Kunal says, “I’m my own man now,” he means that he has become more independent and is able to move forward in his life. Being your own person is important because it means being able to make your own decisions and take responsibility for your life.
Yes, I am my own person. I have faced difficult situations in my life, including growing up without my parents and raising my daughter on my own. These experiences taught me to be strong, independent, and responsible for my own choices.
Separation 
Since I was a child, I experienced being separated from my parents. I was not raised by my mother or my father. I was raised by my grandmother. She was like both a mother and a father to me. She took care of me, protected me, and taught me many things.
Even though I had my grandmother, not having my parents with me was very difficult. I was a child and I did not really understand why my life was like that. Their absence was something I grew up with, and it became part of my story.
When I became a mother, I faced another difficult situation. I raised my daughter on my own. I had to work, take care of her, and deal with many challenges without someone by my side to share all those responsibilities. It was not easy, but I did what I had to do because my daughter needed me.
Because I grew up without my parents, I knew how important it is for a child to have someone present in their life. I wanted my daughter to have the love, care, and support that every child deserves. I did my best to be there for her.
With time, I learned how to deal with everything I had been through. Some things are still part of my memories, but today I can look at my story differently. I realized that I could not change my past, but I could choose what I would do with it.
This experience taught me to be strong, not to give up, and to value my family even more. It also taught me that even when life does not happen the way we imagined, we can keep going and build a different story.
After everything I have been through, I became a stronger and more independent woman. I faced many difficult moments, but they did not make me give up. Instead, they taught me to keep moving forward and to fight for myself and for my daughter.
VICTORIA
Kunal’s uncle told him that he could not become a doctor. . .
Kunal’s uncle told him that he could not become a doctor, even though Kunal wanted to go to an Ivy League college and become a neurosurgeon.
Luckily, I was never in this situation. I cannot really say what I would do, because I do not know what it is like to be a child left by your parents in another country, thousands of miles away from them. I could say, “You should follow your goals no matter what,” but before I learned Kunal’s story, I would not believe that this was really possible.
I believe Kunal achieved a lot in his life even after everything that happened to him. As a child, he was more responsible than his parents.
For me, this is not a story where we can simply say, “He won.” I believe this experience hurt him very deeply and may affect him for the rest of his life.
How is your life? – Fine!
I want to start by saying that “I’m fine” does not always mean that everything is really fine. People often say it when they do not want to talk about their problems or show their real feelings. Sometimes they do not want other people to worry about them. “I’m fine” can mean, “I have problems, but I do not want to talk about them.”
This shows that Kunal was not really fine. At that moment, when he answered his mother, I think he did not believe his own words.
He felt fear again when he did not see his parents in the bedroom. He was trying to get used to a new reality. He was like a 12-year-old boy again, with his mother and father near him. There was no cruel uncle who hurt him, no system that did not help him, no loneliness, and no need to carry the work and problems of an adult.
Were college and becoming a neurosurgeon really his own goals? I do not remember this part of the video well enough to answer.
But I strongly believe that Kunal’s parents should have been responsible for leaving him in that situation. I feel very sorry for him because he had to go through so much.
NADEZHDA
“My life is fine. . .”
Kabir answered to his mother that his life is fine because he didn’t want to upset her on the first day. I think he will talk about his life then, I think she will be crying at night. Her life was very difficult too, full of problems and thoughts about her son. She wanted a better life for her son and their wishes about neurosurgery was their common dream. It is a very sad story about dreams that didn’t come true.
What does “I’m fine” really mean when I use it – it means I am fine, because I am really fine.
Separation
It is incredibly hard to grow up without parents. I am certain that no one child would have to go through such an experience, cause it often leads to childhood trauma – potentially lasting a lifetime – especially when a child is left alone, without support or care.
I didn’t have that experience: My parents always supported me, I had friends, and later I started a family of my own. My daughter also grew up in a complete family; my husband and I loved her, and she also had two grandmothers and two grandfathers. As an only child, she was deeply loved by all of us. That is why she grew up to be self-confident and independent, never having to face the issues associated with separation or feelings of abandonment.
After graduating from the university, she moved to another city and then another country. At first, I felt a sense of emptiness, but I accepted it as a natural stage of life, because my daughter was old enough and needed to live an independent life. She has three children, they are growing up in a complete family, and they also have two grandmothers and two grandfathers. So, our family story continues.
ELMAZ
“How is your life?”
I think Kabir said “It’s fine” because he did not want to tell his mother the truth about how he really felt. Maybe he did not want her to worry about him or disappoint her. His life was probably not really fine because he was not doing what he truly wanted to do. His goals of going to college and becoming a neurosurgeon were not completely his own goals.
For me, when I say “I’m fine,” it can mean different things. Sometimes I really am fine, but sometimes I say it because I don’t want to explain everything or I don’t want other people to worry about me. I think people use this phrase so often because it is an easy answer when they don’t want to talk about their feelings.
“I’m my own man now. . .”
When Kunal says, “I’m my own man now,” I think he means that he can finally make his own decisions and choose his own life. He doesn’t have to live according to what other people tell him to do. I think being your own person is very important because everyone should have the right to choose their own goals and make their own decisions.
I think I am my own person in many ways. I make my own decisions about my life, my future, and what I want to do. Of course, sometimes | listen to other people’s advice, especially people who are important to me, but in the end I want to make my own choices.
SVITLANA H.
Separation
The worst thing is leaving a child at such a tender age without proper support. I could never have left my child with someone else for an indefinite period. I was the one best able to care for her; no one else can love and care for a child the way a mother does. I know how hard it is to part with your children when seeing them is difficult. My daughter lived alone in another country for eight years. And although she left as an adult — at twenty — she still found it hard without family support. We communicated online very often, and I supported her with advice and financial help. Now, however, she supports me, as our life circumstances have changed.
How is your life?
When his mother asked Kabir about his life, he replied that everything was fine — simply because he didn’t want to upset her. They had chosen a bad caregiver for him, though at that time they had no idea. People often pretend to be better than they really are, and we cannot predict how they will behave. Kabir’s life was broken, yet he did not want to complain. Perhaps he hadn’t yet lost hope of changing his life and achieving his dream. Or perhaps he had given up completely and didn’t want to blame anyone.