A Long Way from Home

Although all types of Indian cooking tend to share many qualities, there are important differences that make each style of cooking unique. With so few shops, it is impossible to cater to the numerous cultures of India, especially with such a diverse group of Indian diaspora living in America. Many of my favourite dishes that I once enjoyed have become impossible to make simply because we cannot find the ingredients, even in Little India. While having certain dishes may not be detrimental to our survival, access to familiar foods helps create a sense of belonging and comfort by making immigrants of different cultures feel welcome and allowing them to maintain some similar routines to those they had at home. 

The third photo (top) shows an Indian clothing store, which was the first one I’d been to when I came to America from Canada two years ago. The clothing shop has many options and varieties, but many of the garments are heavily marked up for profits even though the materials are sourced from South Asia.

Overall, the simple enjoyments like food that tied me to my culture are inaccessible here in America due to distance (Little India is far away from where I live), lack of variety, and simply, the number of shops.

South Asians, including Indians, have a largely forgotten history in the United States, at least from my experience. In a city like Irvine where the majority of the population is of the same or similar backgrounds, it feels like any other cultures other than the dominant ones are drowned out. Such a strong concentration of certain ethnic groups leads to an expectation that everyone, especially second-generation immigrants, is thoroughly immersed in their own culture. The lack of access previously described and a widespread lack of knowledge of various cultures sets unrealistic expectations for those who aren’t a part of the majority. For example, East Asian beauty standards outline fair skin as desirable and indirectly characterise this trait as a necessity to be considered “beautiful.” Although no one should feel the need to maintain a certain skin colour, such beauty standards put more pressure on darker-skinned individuals who fall outside of this box of beauty. Even then, these photos show how strangers living in a foreign land can come together to find and form some sense of familiarity in a place that is otherwise not as welcoming through shareable items like food and clothing. 

I have been lucky enough to visit my relatives who still live in India and experience this sense of community on a much larger scale. In India, I am still a stranger, but seeing my relatives and the culture I’ve been brought up in being expanded to a larger group of people creates a similar sense of belonging to that expressed in these pictures.

Love in an Indian household is usually conveyed by pushing people to be their best. One thing many Indian parents despise is waste of potential. I understand this form of love and I appreciate it daily as my parents push me to do well in school and do their best to give me all the opportunities for success. Love makes people feel wanted, and people will only ever stay in a place if they feel wanted, or in other words, if they feel like they belong.

While Indians are the second-largest immigrant demographic in America, the Indian communities in Orange County are not a monolith. Especially since many Indian cultures are mainly focused around religion, it can cause the Indian minority groups outside India to feel excluded when access to familiar goods or services is limited. In terms of how we express love to overcome these challenges of exclusion, many Indians hold education in high regard and are often stereotyped for their academic success. It is the desire to always come out on top that drives many Indian parents to always demand the best from their children, not because their childrens’ smarts determine their value, but because they know their own child’s abilities and want them to make use of it where they can. In the land of opportunities, parents who’ve had far fewer opportunities do everything in their power to give their children the means to do better than they have.

The pictures here show a culture that is pushed to the side. While America has a rich Indian population and in some places, has very accessible Indian goods, Orange County is not one of those places. America is known to the world as a land of diversity, yet for immigrants to live a lifestyle similar to the one they had at home, individuals are forced to isolate themselves in ethnic neighbourhoods or enclaves. If America is truly a land of inclusion and unity where the culture, stories, and contributions of all of its people are valued, stores catering to specific ethnic groups must be spread out; the people will only follow the stores because access to resources that bring them familiarity and comfort allows them to create a sense of home.

To gain public support for increasing access to resources and services that are catered to ethnic minorities, all Americans must first understand why seemingly simplistic needs, like groceries, may not necessarily be appropriately met for various communities of colour, including those of South Asian communities. First of all, we should make the classroom curriculum more diverse and inclusive. History and geography must be taught on a global scale through the lens of the various ethnic groups in America and around the world instead of through a single, Eurocentric perspective. For example, history lessons mentioning the continents of coloured people often start off with colonisation and imperialism. Rather than learning about the rich histories and cultures of Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas, we are taught how Europeans benefited when these civilizations fell to colonial rule. The first time I learned about Africa as a freshman in high school, the lesson’s focus was on the European struggle to enter and explore the continent due to malaria. While our education system is better than most, as it exposes us to different perspectives, it still has a long way to go. I should not have to know of the Congo solely as the region that was brutalised by the king of Belgium. What happened before that? What did Medieval Times look like in the Congo? In India? In China? Thus, when knowledge is solely produced and understood based on European involvement, it is hard for students to recognize racial and ethnic minorities’ unique stories of resilience and community-building without associating them with their historical aggressors that acted under the guise of humanitarianism. When unable to appreciate cultures other than their own, people tend to become blind to the challenges that ethnic minority groups face as a result of the social norms imposed on them by dominant groups. There are twelve years of education in the standard American schooling system. In twelve years, the history and geography curriculum can be expanded to include a far greater variety of cultural studies.