Just your average Indian kid trying to survive life in the South

Life in the South as an Indian-American kid was…different. I was raised in an incredibly small town called Olney, TX (a town with a population of less than 3,500 people) from the time I was 6-months-old until I was 9-years-old, which is when I moved to Fort Worth, Texas.

My family of three and I were the only South Asian/Indian people in the entire town. Yes, out of 3,500 people WE were the only Indian family to settle there. The town was so small there was only one street that had about 5-7 stores plus a couple restaurants, including a Dairy Queen, which is why there weren’t many Indian families there.

In order to fit in with my “non-Indian” friends, I had to learn to adapt to the American culture as well as keeping my Indian roots alive. I was made fun of countless times for bringing Indian food to school for lunch because it “smelled weird”, or for having a complex religion. For the longest time as a child, I hated my culture for putting me in such predicaments. It was difficult to keep our Indian/Hindu heritage alive since the town didn’t celebrate any Hindu holidays, and the neighboring cities that did celebrate such were located about 1 hour away.

Although the people in the town were so nice to my family, I couldn’t help but feel as if I was secluded from the entire world and I needed to break out.

My mother understood that there were more opportunities available to us in a larger city, so she divorced my father when I was nine years old and moved my brother and I with her to Fort Worth, TX.

I thought my life in a city would be much better because there was a larger Hindu community, however I couldn’t have been more incorrect. I attended a public high school where I was one of the few Indian kids. People were cold and ignorant towards my roots and my religion. “Why do you worship an elephant?” was something I was commonly asked by students. Hinduism is oftentimes a misconstrued religion because most people believe that we worship animals instead of people. Just to be clear: Hinduism is an incredibly complex religion focused on one’s spiritual journey rather than its “devotion” to animals.

I was constantly bullied by kids in my freshmen class for having a culture in which it is acceptable to wear a red dot on your forehead. I kept telling myself those kids just didn’t understand Hindu culture, but it was hard to keep that uplifting spirit when people were constantly bringing me down. There were often times I would come home sobbing and my mom would always tell me: “Beta, not everyone thinks the same way. Be patient and let them have a taste of their own medicine some day”.

Another one of the hardest things to get past, even to this day, was the ignorance exemplified by others on the concept of terrorism. I was constantly mocked as a “terrorist” because of something someone saw on television that involved a brown person with a bomb. News flash: just because I’m brown doesn’t mean I’m related to the terrorist, nor does it make me one.

This seems like an unfortunate experience to endure, but it honestly wasn’t as bad as it seems. The misconceptions of my culture and religion have taught me to be patient with others and to understand their perspectives on things they may not have much knowledge about.

One of my favorite quotes is from Isaac Newton, and says “If I have done the public any service, it is due to my patient thought”. Growing up in the South as a South Asian-American kid was definitely a different experience than those of my cousins, for example, who lived in areas where there was a larger Indian community. They didn’t have to deal with much of the judgement or misconceptions that I did about Hinduism, or Indian culture.

Nonetheless, the experience has continued to teach me how to handle misbeliefs that I may come across in this crazy journey we call life.