Your story on being Indian

Friends...I am always amazed at the places that Indians have chosen to settle abroad and the stories behind why their families chose where they live. I am also amazed at the Indians abroad who have strong Indian values and are able to celebrate their culture. I thought that this would be a great place to share your story and also how the Indian cinema, music or television has kept you connected to your roots. Friends from India are also encouraged to participate.

I will start with my story. My parents immigrated to Canada in 1971. We grew up in a small town where my brother and I were one of the only Indian kids in our school. The only connection I had to the Indian community was through our Gurudwara which my parents helped establish. We would go their as kids on the weekends. My parents listened to Indian music and watched Indian movies. I remember that my mom would get a whole bunch of Hindi movies from Vancouver and we would take them home and watch them. I was growing up in a time where being Indian was not cool and my brother and I ended up making friends that were not Indian. My parents would try to pull as back with Indian music and Indian movies. I learned so much about our culture from Indian movies and music. I learned how to speak hindi that when I went to Mumbai I even shocked myself because I didn't know I could. Indian movies helped me to stay connected and I am proud to be Indian...now my kids watch Kyunki although they are very young they are also getting connected. They enjoy their punjabi music and are very proud..that they even did a bhangra dance at their school, they get their non-indian friends involved and it is fun to watch them teach others about their culture. People like Amitabh, Dharmendra, Sharukh etc had a great affect on me. Now my kids are connected to their roots through people like Salman, Sharuk and yes they love to watch Amitabh...and not to forget Kyunki.

Hi I am from Mauritius, hindu by religion and my great grandparents were from india. But here parents dont have to struggle to keep the indian culture etc as we are born with it...We dess up like in india, teh marriages, puja verything...Indian Films/serials also are helping we mauritians who are basically indian by origin to keep our culture, language(Hindi), festivals etc alive. And i should they thanks to them. At present Mauritius is like a little india. In fact its surprising taht many people dont even know that more than half of teh mauritian population are indian by origin....Many people in india consider us as foreigners but its nt right as we are also part of india.😊
Well if anybody interested to know why our great grand parents came to mauritius years back: THE BRITISH PEOPLE FOOLED THEM SAYING THAT IF YOU GO AND WORK TEHRE, WHEN YOU LIFT BIG ROCKS YOU WILL GET GOLD AND THUS YOU WILL BE RICH. AS TEHY WANTED TO GET RID OF THEIR POVERTY TEHY CAME HERE. BUT HERE TEH SCENE WAS DIFFERENT THEY WERE ILL TREATED LIKE SLAVES. BUT HATS OFF TO THEM.YET THEY STRUGGLE TO KEEP THEIR INDIAN CULTURE AND TRADITIONS ALIVE.

And also thanks to all those who do the updates as i no longer watch any of these serials as we dont get them here but i used to watch in india, so it helps me to know whats happening.
Millions thanks....

hi guys, this is shaifali.im hindu lohana.im from india but right now in newyork..im here from 7 years and my family is totally indian...we have grown up in the village.i have one younger sis and 2 brothers...actully inside the home we don't feel like we r living in usa, but ya life is very tought here..i have 2 best friends but here u know u can talk to them on the phone and see them after week or so....here we all 4 r really good friends to each others...but we miss india so much...and finally we r going to india in January..we wear indian dress when we go to temple or family is getting to gether on festival or something....i think its really good to keep your cluture in different country....

HI all... i am from USA and been here for past 16 years. I went to school in small town where there were handful Indians and very small indian store. We used to get all excited to see very bad quality, pirated movies. It was a treat to wait for any and all movies.

Now i am in IT field and think to myself everyday that i am in the wrong country at the wrong time. All the jobs are going back to India and may be this is my chance to go back to motherland. Everyday of my 16years here i have thought about India and how one day i will go back.

may be one day it will happen.....one day..

but until then.. i would like to say many many thanks to the entire group here for keeping us in touch with the entertainment world.

Thanks a Million 😛

Thanks people for sharing your story