Browsing: Indian Americans

If Thanksgiving is a festival of gratitude, then Indians have been preparing for it their whole lives.

In India, take a walk down the Mumbai waterfront in the early morning mist, and you see ordinary citizens quietly feeding the fish and the birds. Their daily day doesn’t really begin until the deities in their home shrine have been venerated with fresh flowers and offered prasadam.
It is only after eating a little of this blessed offering does the family sit down to their meals. Many remember to keep aside a portion of the food for a hungry person or the birds. It is all about sharing.

New immigrants in ethnic enclaves tend to have a stronger support system but once they fly the coop into the prestigious suburbs and into Americanization, there is a chasm of distances to overcome between friends. We are monetarily richer but are we poorer in friends?

With the upcoming holiday season begins the Indian community’s tryst with tradition in America. Both Garba and Dandiya Raas, folk dances, have found their way to America and everyone from heart surgeons to hip-hop kids are taking to the large dandiya raas arenas during the festival of Navrati which heralds a season of upcoming festivals from Dusshera to Diwali. How has the interaction with America changed Garba and Dandiya Raas?

We hear of Indian-American success stories but there are other stories to be told too. So many forgotten immigrants labor in low-paying, thankless jobs: essential workers, restaurant staff, nannies and nail salon workers. The pandemic tightened the screws further as so many found their lifeline receding with loss of jobs, home schooling of children and the inability to pay rent or the grocery bills.

Intercultural Marriages are Becoming More Common – “I think the combination of two different backgrounds offers a unique insight in life, the hard working immigrant story mixed with the confidence of belonging.   I also think intercultural children are generally better looking!”

Who are the Indian-Americans? A new study ‘Social Realities of Indian-Americans’ tells you a lot that you may have not known.

If you grew up in India you will remember the magic of myths and folklore which was passed on to you by your grandparents, loving aunts and grand-aunts and their loquacious  helpers. There were stories for all occasions: stories at meal-time, stories at bed-time and even stories for monsoon evenings. Stories for sad times, and stories for happy times.

As you grew up and left home, either for further studies, to find work or to get married, you haphazardly packed these childhood tales into your suitcases, in-between the spice boxes and the photo albums and the clothes. And then you forgot about them. Until you yourself became a parent – in a new land, in uncharted waters.

There are scores of groups coming together to bring the Biden-Harris ticket to the White House. Besides AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islanders) there are several power players like Indiaspora, AAPI Victory Fund, Indian American Impact Fund and South Asians for Biden, and Indian National Council for Biden.