I attended a dance performance recently. The kathak dancer, Rachna Nivas, was born and raised in the US but her knowledge was far superior to mine considering I was raised in India and not only studied Bharat Natyam, but also played the sitar, sang classical Hindustani music and went to art and drama classes. But I did it for my parents and gave it up as an adult. Its only years later, after moving abroad, that I began appreciating the arts more. The classic ‘ghar ki moorgi dal barabar’ syndrome. I didn’t deep dive.
The classic ‘ghar ki moorgi dal barabar’ syndrome. I didn’t deep dive.
And therein lies the difference between me and kids who study Indian classical arts outside India. They revere it and do not take their heritage for granted. In a country of 1.3 billion, there are enough Indians with talent and knowledge, so my point is not that Indians in India do not appreciate but most Indian children grow up with this exposure and not all keep up with it after childhood. Kids born and raised outside the sub-continent, who have parents keeping a grip on their Indianness, often end up pursuing a career dedicated to their heritage. They put people like me to shame with our ignorance.
I always believed when Indians immigrate, they begin living in a time warp. My belief stems from observing a pattern. People who moved in the 60’s live in that India and raised their kids accordingly. The ones who moved in the 80’s can’t think beyond that period and ditto for techies who moved in the 2000’s. In the US, these kids were jokingly referred to as ABCD’s aka American Born Confused Desis, raised to win spelling bees, perform arangetrams and excel in school. However, the lines are getting blurred now and I don’t believe it’s the case anymore. There’s a reverse kind of osmosis, where kids in India are as savvy about the latest hip hop artists, rappers and Hollywood movies. In the old days, exposure to the west was limited and kids had to wait a long time for news of their favourite artists. Maybe it’s the advent of social media, maybe it’s a shrinking world.
But I digress from my main point of highlighting a talented and brilliant woman of the South Asian diaspora. Rachna is not just a trained Kathak dancer but runs the Leela dance collective. At her concert, I saw her young Indian and non-Indian students brimming with excitement and enthusiasm. They wore Indian outfits, talked knowledgeably about Taal, Laay, Abhinav and are proud torch bearers of their guru. Nivas had live musicians, some of whom had flown in from India and some who were local. A Canadian girl sang compositions in flawless Hindi. A Brooklyn boy coaxed melodies from his flute that would’ve made his guru, Shri Hariprasad Chaurasia, proud. A New York bred girl, whose explanations of Kali and the divine feminine kept the audience enthralled. It is so heartwarming to see young girls and women keeping the arts alive so far away from its roots.
EkWomen interviewed Payal Kadakia and Rujuta Vaidya who, like Rachna, grew up exposed to Indian culture and despite initial childhood trepidation, eventually embraced and continued the Parampara of their dance gurus. Young desis like them eventually develop a well-rounded hybrid identity that embraces the Indian and American side of their life. The myth that they do not know Indian languages, they do not appreciate their heritage, they cannot cook desi food or drape a saree is just that, a myth. I see more and more young diaspora kids embracing their culture and proclaiming it from the rooftops. It will be interesting to see what change the next decade will bring. Meanwhile kudos to these South Asian diaspora women for bringing India to the west.
