Namaste mere dosts! (Warm greetings to everyone in Hindi). Despite residing in the United States all my life, my heart belongs to India only. Of course I have grown attached to the United States, but the multitudes of culture and traditions of India have made me the very person I am today. While being raised up in the United States, I was exposed to several instances of Indian culture, such as the grand ceremonial weddings that can last for a week (the length of my parents wedding!), the delectable foods, and the religious beliefs. I greatly respect my religion, for it gives me a sense of hope and the chains I wear around my neck illustrate this. Even though my family and I are not overly religious, we still follow some of its practices. For instance, we built a mandar (temple in Hindi) in our home for prayers, we show respect to our elders by touching their feet, and have festivities to express our love for our Bgwhaan (G0d) and Indian counterparts. In addition, I can speak and understand Hindi, but still need to learn how to read and write. In fact, I know more Spanish than I do Hindi (got to love the irony…) Nevertheless, I will continue to learn my culture and respect it.
When I was young my parents instilled many important values within and taught me about the beautiful sights in India, such as the Golden Temple of India and the Taj Mahal. I have visited India three times, but it was the last visit that I can lucidly recall. In my 3rd visit to India, I was about 13 years old and witnessed the grand culture India so magnificently displayed to me. Here, allow me to describe the scene for you (this was in New Delhi, India): houses with flat rooftops, the cows walking on the streets, children playing with stray dogs, and wonderfully designed temples permeated throughout the city. It definitely was a new sight for me, for I have seen nothing like this in New York City. Furthermore, I was fortunate enough to have been in India during the summer because I had the opportunity celebrate with my family Independence Day in India on August 15th. I remember vividly the thousands of kites that were flying in the clear, blue sky and all the children and adults who were persistently trying to knock down each others kites; the large gathering of people who were dancing to the tune of a drum and singing. Seeing everyone have a merry time was truly was a glorious sight.
Also, a cool fact of me is most of the family members from my dad’s side of the family live in the United States now and all my mom’s family, who lived in India all their lives, just recently moved to Malaysia (how exciting!). Even though I am patriotic towards my country, India, I would not opt to live there due to the difficult conditions of life there and extremely torrid, humid weather (last time I went during the summer it reached a whopping 112 degrees!). Even though I haven’t been to India in over 5 years now, I am fortunate enough to partake in many scintillating Indian festivities in the United States. For example, this summer I went to my cousin’s wedding, which lasted for about 5 days and it was spectacular. Here let me share with you the extravagant and cultural aspects of this costly wedding: the groom appeared on a white horse, which was greatly ornamented with brilliantly jeweled clothing, people dancing around the groom while the drums were being played (called ‘Dhol’), the bride wearing heavy sets of gold and clothing around her, a priest to perform the ceremonial and religious aspects of the wedding, and a beautifully decorated dining hall (there’s more…but this shall suffice, :D). Basically, even after living in the United States I have had the chance to celebrate and enjoy my Indian culture.
Next, I would like to the introduce ‘bhangra,’ a dance that holds a special significance in my culture. Basically, bhangra is a type of dance that combines pop music from Western civilizations with Indian Punjabi music. I find this dance as a significant part of my culture because it portrays the merriment and sense of community between two different groups of people; it depicts the relationship between Indians and the people from the West and a delightful amalgamation of two completely different cultures can be seen. To see this sense of unity between these groups of people makes me happy and shows that everyone can get along in some form, in this case through music and culture. Bhangra is one of the dominant forms of music in modern Indian culture today and I must say that bhangra can get a timid person like me dancing on my feet!
Overall, these Indian customs and religious beliefs have become an important part of my life. Even to this day, I enjoy listening to Indian music more than any other form of music and would prefer Indian food over anything. I might be in some sense American, but I consider myself to be a true Indian and will always uphold this belief. With all the amazing things Indian culture has offered to me, I can definitely say that I am proud to be an Indian.
