Ask most NRIs what they miss most about home and they will tell you the food, the festivals, the noise. Ask them again, more quietly, and they will tell you it is their parents.
There is a particular experience that comes with building a life abroad that almost nobody talks about publicly because it sits in an uncomfortable space between gratitude and grief. You are grateful for what you have built. The career, the stability, the opportunities your children will have. And underneath that, quietly, is a guilt that does not go away.
You were not there when your father had his health scare. You found out on a video call, hours after it happened, because nobody wanted to worry you. You sent money for the treatment. You called every day for a week. And then life resumed, as it always does, and the calls became weekly again, and the quiet stretched back out.
Your mother has started repeating herself on calls. Small things. The same story twice in one conversation. You are not sure if it is early cognitive decline or just the rhythm of someone who does not have enough to fill their days. You are not there to know the difference.
This is the NRI experience that does not make it into the highlight reels. The WhatsApp groups full of family photos and the private knowledge that you are watching your parents age through a four-inch screen and there is very little you can do about it from where you are.
The guilt is not productive. It does not change the geography or the visa or the mortgage or the school term your children are in the middle of. It just sits there, adding weight to an already full life.
What it points to is a real and unaddressed need. Not for more video calling features or cheaper international plans. For something that fills the space between calls. Something that makes an elderly parent feel less alone on a Tuesday afternoon when nobody has called and the house is quiet and the day is very long.
iAVATARS exists because this gap is real and because the people caught in it deserve something built specifically for them. A physical device that carries the presence of someone who loves them into their daily life, without requiring a scheduled call or a reliable internet connection or a family member to be available at the same moment.
The guilt will not go away entirely. But the silence can be filled.
