Let's get Enculturated!

I am the worst Indian ever. I eat beef, think pere-pou’ing is a gross tradition, and much to my grandparents’ dismay, I can’t speak a phrase of Hindi or Sindhi.

A few months ago, when Maharaj looked at me and proclaimed “You are now a Hindu man,” I couldn’t really understand why such a strong wave of emotions swept over me. Was it the fact that my sister was about to get married in a few days? Or that I had just witnessed another moment where my parents sacrificed somuch to give me things I secretly desired? (Even though I definitely insisted I really didn’t want anything.) It may have been that so many people I hold so close to me had flown, bussed, or carpooled their way to Miami earlier than necessary just to make it for my Janya. That might have been it.

Or could it possibly really have been the fact that I was proud to be a Hindu man?

I would prefer to believe it was the latter, but in all honesty, I have absolutely no idea what being a Hindu man really entails. I remember wondering what the coconut in my entire ritual was about; I just found out recently that the coconut was my Janya buddy since I didn’t have another person to Janya with. I mean if I did then that would have been a real party… Regardless of the reason, I ended upshowing a little more emotion than I would have liked to show. There were about 60 people plus photographers and videographers to catch that prized moment on camera for pleasure, or blackmail.Whatever.

That occasion got me to thinking “I should really explore my culture while I’m young.” I asked my mother at the beginning of summer for atrip to India to allow me to learn more about Indian Culture and she was all for it. A month later we were planning tickets. We got stuck with the craziest route- Dallas to Frankfurt to Switzerland and on to New Delhi. So after 35 hours of travel, some half assed plane rest, a bottle of South African white wine (which is spectacular btw), a dozen plane meals, and half dozen mimosas later, we finally reached the motherland.

Just to think, if we had to do this trip in economy, I don’t think we would’ve made it… Either way, the jet lag and lack of sleep has definitely got me a little bit delirious. See ya,

Sahil

Here Delta finds another way to screw me over- after delaying my 6:15 am for two hours due to "crew's rest", a compartment wouldn't close in the plane, and they decided to delay the flight for another 45 minutes until the pilot and a passenger were finally able to successfully close the compartment. I missed my first flight from atlanta to dallas due to this first flight's delay. Delta then grudgingly put me on standby for the next flight out to Dallas.

luckily I made it to Dallas, where the next 32 hours of my journey started. This was taken on the first flight, lufthansa dallas-frankfurt

Delhi's airport has built a new wing for the Commonwealth games with different art pieces, each one of these hands has a different meaning to them, and is right above customs. If I tried to take a photo of anything in states immigration I probably would get detained and cavity searched.