Both of my parents immigrated to America from India. Their two mother tongues are Telugu and Kannada, but I never learned either of these languages when I was younger. As my parents spoke Telugu and Kannada at home among themselves, I slowly started to tune out the same incomprehensible words. The tuning out became subconscious. Sometimes, I would not recognize that my parents started speaking in another language.

I recognize the language barrier when we are with family friends because I cannot understand or contribute to the conversation. Or when my family friend can speak to my parents in Kannada and I can't speak or understand. Or when I realize that my friends can speak in their parents' native tongue(s) and I can't.

I never felt an immense amount of detachment from my Indian culture, as I pursued Bharatanatyam, an Indian classical dance, and learned about Hinduism through other paths. I felt separated from family members. I already live far away from most of my relatives, who are in India. All of them speak in fluent English with me, except for one of my grandmothers who I refer to as Avva (uh-vuh, grandmother in Telugu). Avva can speak only a little English. Whenever I speak to her on the phone or in person, I tell her that everything is well and school is going well. My dad has to help translate even these simple surface-level conversations.

I've always wished I could communicate with Avva, and even my dad has told me that it would make him and his mom very happy. So, I decided to start learning Telugu in order to communicate with Avva. I chose Telugu over Kannada because not only is Avva the only relative who is not fluent in English but also my other grandmother is fluent in Telugu as well.