This article was written by a deeply mysterious desi who prefers to stay in the shadows.
Somewhere between 2016 and 2017, there were these incidents reported in the news, and they stuck with me: A grandfather from India, was visiting his son in the States. While walking in his neighborhood, someone reported him, and the police arrived and tackled him to the ground for not knowing...
The world sees that Canada’s immigration policies are inclusive and good. Although, ideologically it is an inclusive policy, practically it spells disaster! I am no sociologist or economist, but a regular working guy, who happens to have access to information of common people’s bank accounts, which tells me a lot...
As a conspicuously brown salesman in America, I am sometimes exposed to differential treatment. This treatment is born sometimes out of skepticism, sometimes out of arrogance and sometimes out of pure hate. This treatment is sometimes sub-conscious, sometimes latent and sometimes purposefully made evident. For a country that has championed...
Everyone’s been talking about the 75-year study conducted by Harvard on happiness. Its results say that happy life is equivalent to the healthy relationships you have. But how do we form healthy relationships? Let’s explore the nature of most relationships today, they are bound by certain rules of engagement. It...
Let me begin by saying I do not have deep respect for women. I have equal respect for them. I will not treat them otherwise for being a woman and at the same time I will not cut them some slack for being one. I believe that any person, man...
My first encounter with vipassana was in 2004, when my friend said she lost 4 kgs after being there for 10 days. “Wow,” I thought then, “I should try it too”. Along with losing weight, I felt the need to not talk. So I went there and there were several...
In the Nineties when I was growing up, my father always said, “You need influence” and my mother seconded that statement. And both of them worked for the government. When the economy of India opened in 91, things started changing and by 2001, the private sector had challenged the statement...
The reason I am writing this post is because I feel I must write it for the sake of a lot of people, especially women, looking for that ‘perfect’ one. There are quite a few stories on this already and some are on this very blog as well, but none...
Coming from India where street dogs usually chase you; it is not uncommon to be scared of dogs. And some dogs do look scary for a lot of us who are unfamiliar with them. But I was almost ‘forced’ into loving a dog due to my roommate, who just one...
Recently I read a blog here about South Asian men having a problem in calling themselves feminists and this post is a further analysis of this phenomenon. But before we even get into men having a problem calling themselves feminists, there are enough women who have the exact same problem. Or...
As someone who feels more at home in Hyderabad than anywhere else in the world, I obviously want my city to demand the same amount of awe as some of the bigger cities. When people say “I am from Mumbai” or “I am a Delhi girl” or “I grew up...
The world was hazy when I landed in Toronto. It was my first flight out of my country and I did not know anyone at all in Toronto. Through the Consulate in India I had found a person who was supposed to pick me up. He didn’t reach for almost...
There is a lot said about marriage, all over and most single people “want” to be married because the world does get lonely sometimes, is the feeling. When I was single that’s how I felt and I know a lot of my single friends feel the same. A lot of...
Image courtesy: wikimedia.org This list features one “Indian” film in its list of Best foreign films so far – Monsoon Wedding and is perhaps as Indian as Slumdog Millionaire? This is a really confusing terrain because Mira Nair is a Hollywood director or is she not? But that apart, there...
It’s not until a desi hits the American shore that s/he has to change the way they poop. From having clean and wet butts after pooping, the desi now suddenly has to get used to having a dry and dirty butt, because it never feels completely clean with that toilet...
Making friends was never really seen as a problem, in fact it never crossed my mind that it would ever become a problem, because all through school and college, I always had friends around and all the time. When I graduated, my friend circle did reduce but they were still...
When you are away from India, of course you miss the food and people, so you tend to gravitate towards other Indians. If you know them from before or have interacted with them in a context where both parties are equal, the interaction is great. But the problem stems in...
“We are all colonized”, is a statement frequently heard in most literature or arts classes. But there is a world of difference in saying it and realizing that the mind is actually colonized. The very people who say it would like recognition from England or America in their endeavors, and...
A woman! There are now several studies and articles about how women in various service industries are under-paid as compared to their male counterparts. There are also studies on women being bad negotiators of salary and how they are victims of patriarchy. There is also set of people that say...
Usually as time passes abroad, the home country beckons, not because anything has changed there, but because the mind makes up longing images in the head. A lot of people who move back to India after staying abroad have a similar set of problems or none at all. People away...
It took me really long to relate to Hollywood films, especially coming from the South Asian culture where each word is exaggerated, interpreted and projected as something else. Most of the Hollywood film plots are driven by events unlike Indian films which are driven by thoughts or imagination. Let’s take...
It is really easy to spot that angry Indian amongst the crowd, especially when it is a desi crowd, this feature comes out easily. Why are some Indians, especially from big cities so angry? When we met some friends yesterday, our friend mentioned how on one of his visits, he...
Image Courtesy: wikipedia.org In a completely new city and a new country, we almost recreated old times – not exactly, but just by memory. Her tiny tot carried a pony with wings that immediately caught my attention – that was as magical as the event itself, meeting someone after 21...
There is a lot of information going around related to grand-kids. A couple of years back, TOI published this article, which looks at the ‘real’ life behind grandparents who volunteer to take care of their grand-kids. Off late, this has been changing because grandparents are now refusing to take care...
Once a friend said, “Desi kids and dogs are both badly behaved!” when we mentioned that we need to train our dog more. In a couple of months she did end up a reasonably trained dog although she prefers to come to us only after we call her 4-5 times,...
In India the concept of Guru is very deep-rooted, guru comes before God and is to be venerated so. In the “Golden ages” the gurus were great sages who dedicated their lives to meditation in their art or skill and gained immense knowledge of the universal truths that we now...
I moved to the USA from India after getting married in 2009. I thought life in a new place will be tough without family and friends. But I was not scared. I was super excited to be with my husband, totally in love with him. My parents were crying at...
