Free Thinkers

This word meant nothing to me about a year back - but now, I can vow by it and can't imagine life, if it were not for the freedom of thought and for independence!! I moved to the US exactly about 8 years back. Before that, I worked in various places in India and enjoyed considerable amounts of freedom, compared to many other females in India have now. For me freedom of thoughts and independence never came with difficulty, but when I see people with closed mind, I so much wish, they should be exposed to a free society for induction of free thinking..
So, who qualifies to be a free thinker?
People that are open to new ideas, those who can substantiate their beliefs on the basis of logic and data and peacefully debate their ideas and thoughts are the free thinkers. Free thinkers also have the ability to accept or reject a certain school of thought entirely based on logic. Not merely on what someone said before or on incomplete information..
Why Indians moving to US like it so much? I would say it is just the freedom and the free thinking environment - nothing more nothing less. We humans, are the highest evolved life forms(so we believe) just love our independence. Even if you look at animals, they like to be independent than to be en-caged. Studies have shown that pet animals become dumber than the free living forms!So, can we say the same thing about humans? Coming back to living in the US, let us weigh the pros and the cons. Pros: Free country, free society, lots of independence. Those in science can do really well if there is a will and little bit of luck. Now coming to cons: we end up doing all our day to day chores by ourselves - that way we waste our overall working hours. We could do so much more if somebody takes care of that aspect of our life. we pay so much tax, we feel lonely, can't save much for future etc. Social security schemes are a sham, if you managed to work for over 10 years with more than 40 points, you may receive social security once you turn 70(It is going to be 70 very soon), provided if you are a citizen of this country , and if you are still alive after 70!! So most of us work so hard to secure our life after 70, not knowing how long we are going to last. In India on the other hand, we can do so much more - we can get all our domestic work done by someone, we can have family over all the time, we can enjoy the festivities, and to top it all now there is hardly any difference in salary structure between India and USA . So, clearly there is a disadvantage living in US, then what still keeps Indians here? Is it the clean roads, un-interrupted power supply or the cars?  I will re-iterate, it is none of the above!! It is just the atmosphere to be a free thinker and the independence and nothing else.
When I visit India, I get appalled by the attitude of people. First of all, there is corruption in every sphere of life. There is so much show up business going on and on the top of everything, it is lack of freedom. I can't go out by myself(ya you heard it right), somebody has to escort me all the time because it is DANGEROUS for a woman to go out alone! Go to villages, people will ask, why you are not wearing saree, tow ring, sindur etc. Is it because you think you are modern? Now, being a free thinker, I would very much like to ask this question: give me a simple reason why I should wear all that you are asking me to wear? But I keep my mouth shut.. People just so much believe in not asking  questions. If you ask too many questions, people think you are arrogant. Why should I follow a culture/tradition if that is so inconvenient to me? Why can't I make a choice on how I would like to dress up? We do certainly dress up traditionally during festivities but during regular working days why should I en-cage myself in some cultural dagger net? In my family, there are few people that are quite misogynists. They don't prefer girls to study beyond a certain point. Reason - they will start asking questions and will become open minded. So, somehow suppress that.Many of my relatives often say - don't follow west.
I am big fan of ancient Indian culture and the intelligent women in Indian history. I somehow can't find a link where this present stupid close minded culture came to India.
I have been reading faithfreedom.org for quite sometimes now and I can relate this "don't ask questions" to islamic culture. Did we have this culture before the islamic invasion? Are we not sticking into some stupid aborigin adultrous culture? It is time we Indians wake up and be free thinkers again..