Category: Between Two Worlds: Expat Life
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Make a circle. This was the prompt for a competition I very desperately wanted to enter, but couldn’t because of my visa status. First, this visa makes me pay three times the EU fees for the same bachelor’s degree. Then this visa only allows me to work 16 hours a week on a minimum wage…
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Chai is going to be the next MatchaAn American TikToker posted a video of her walking in the snow, drinking chai from her flask with this caption. But you see, I am a proud desi girl, and half my Instagram feed is Indians reclaiming their culture from the West. Someone is mad about the dupatta…
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They are selling my ancestral house. My great-grandmother sold all her dowry to buy land in the city so she could help her newlywed husband find his calling. Madhu was a city gal who refused to settle for mediocrity. She held on to one piece of jewellery: her huge diamond studs. She loved them dearly,…
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I have faint memories of lying in my childhood bed, in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep, and pappa’s snoring kept me up. Our ceiling fan was off-white and had silver beads in the middle, which made a weird pattern when the fan was on a slow speed. I remember looking and…
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My father measures time with mogras. He goes to this public park to walk every evening Walks the same route, at the same time like clockwork Done that for about 16 years now And in one corner of the park, there are swings Where kids play Near the swings are some old benches where the…
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from the archives Ever since I moved to Rotterdam, I have had one close Indian friend who studies with me and a couple who lived in my building. One of them was Gujarati, which was just the best feeling ever because I never had to translate a single thought when talking to him, but they…
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I sit at my study table in this tiny room I pay too much rent for,Writing my final essay for an Urban History Elective I am takingIt is about the gentrification of a neighbourhood in Rotterdam that I now identify as “my neighbourhood” after living here for not more than 7 monthsI have found the…
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Kids who move abroad, leaving behind their families, their friends, the language they have spoken their entire life, their culture and their festivals learn to live with the shadows of nostalgia constantly following them. I am one of those kids and this blog is slowly turning into diary entries I make to log my living…
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Back home, touching your elders’ feet means seeking their blessings. You bow down, sometimes partially to only reach their knees out of laziness and sometimes completely to touch both their feet with both your palms, they place their right hand on your head and whisper the sweetest blessings.If it is your birthday, they wish you…
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I recently finished my honours programme at university. It was a 5-month long course for which 20 students were chosen. Starting from the selection process until our final symposium a few days ago, everything in honours was linked to storytelling. Stories were the central theme of the programme: Europe and its Stories for the first…
Still Wondering 