Blog 1 – Pre-departure (but not really)

Currently sitting in a hotel in Chennai, I am writing this post, preparing myself to experience a country I haven’t visited in eight years. Tomorrow, I will travel to Kanchipuram, a city renowned for its temples and sarees, just a 2-hour drive from the larger city of Chennai. I’ll be beginning my work with Hand in Hand’s health sector, an NGO that utilizes funding, mostly from CSR, to improve public health infrastructure and organize educational events to improve preventative health.

Despite my Indian heritage, a basic knowledge of both Tamil and Hindi, and possession of an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) Card, it all still feels incredibly distant—so foreign.

From my height (according to Wikipedia, I’m 2.6 SDs above average) to my glasses and clothes, I knew I would stand out in any crowd I encountered. And that’s exactly what happened. As I walked out of the airport, the humid 85-degree air at midnight in Chennai made me feel like a foreigner in the country with which I identify in the US. In Ann Arbor, I am Indian, but here, I was even more so a ‘vellaikkaaran’ (a white person).

I was truly a ‘gora pakora’. 💀💀💀

As I prepare myself to be overcharged when I enter an auto and to be spoken to in broken English, I continue to hope that I eventually fit in. Maybe, by the end of my trip, I’ll be able to answer the question: What does it mean to be Indian?

On a sidenote, if you would like to follow my food journey in India, use this link (I promise, its worth it): https://beliapp.co/Oh5TKLlTZEb?utm_source=copy