A quote is often said about third-culture kids, "Citizens of everywhere and nowhere". I considered this a cliched quote during my early teenage years but as time passed by and now that I'm in college, I decided to think about it fresh light. This thought process though at the back of my mind came into the foreground after some recent personal events.
For a little bit of context and background, I identify as a third culture kid as my father is a Bengali from Bengal, while my mother, though being a Bengali, is Sikkimese as my grandfather had moved there before Sikkim became a part of India in 1975. Subsequently, I was born in Gangtok and raised there for a few years until moving to Singapore and then to Coimbatore. Now, a third culture kid is defined as someone, whose parents hail from different communities, in my case different states of India with varying cultural connotations and being raised in a society with a completely different culture than that of the parents'.
Given this context, I end up in a fix when asked about where I hail from. I generally tend to answer it as a Bengali from Sikkim, precisely Gangtok currently living in Tamil Nadu. I give this answer as Gangtok's the place, I feel most at home in. But, after living in Coimbatore for quite some time, there are things about South Indian culture which I would say, me and my parents have imbibed. Again, as a contradiction, there are quite a few things which are Bengali about me as well.
Well, the aforementioned answer is fine for introductions but, then as my friends probed my origins, I was prompted to trace it as well. From the fragments of information which I gathered from my grandfather, I came to know that our family had migrated from Kannauj and Mithila almost five hundred years back into Bengal due to the Mughal purge on Hindus and subsequently, my great-grandfather, Shri Rakesh Chandra Bhattacharyya had moved to Assam, in the 1890s and that's where my grandfather was raised. This is just one fraction of my ancestry, for the sake of context for the reader and I daren't mention all the other roots as this article is not about tracing my ancestry but thoughts on identity.
My maternal grandparents had been raised in the north-eastern part of India in the states of Assam and Meghalaya and therefore, despite being Bengalis, their approach to life differed significantly from that of Bengalis living in Bengal. Even their usage of the Bengali language was laced with Assamese and later on with Nepali as they lived the majority of their lives in Sikkim. Though we speak Bengali at home, both me and my mother's Bengali accent sounds quite different from that of traditional Bengali speakers. For instance, I have a tendency to use the sound 'u' instead of 'o' or 'ou' as in the word ought. Also, I have felt being on home turf when I hear Nepali in my surroundings. My father had moved out of Bengal during his college life and has never resided there ever since. So our affinity with Bengali culture has become more intellectual and not cultural. Therefore, I read Bengali books, and though while speaking, my lexical structures often don't make sense, I read Bengali quite flawlessly.
Moreover, with this myriad background, my parents had moved abroad and had resided in Canada after which my mom moved back to India and I was born while my dad relocated to the Netherlands. We then moved to Singapore after a lot of personal turbulence and then to Coimbatore. My parents had adapted really well to the western lifestyle and they have an idyllic version of small town western life which I would say has really crept into me. They adapted quite well in the west as the north-eastern part of India is way more westernized than the other parts of the country where we have lived or been to. Both my parents have a love for country songs and Western classical music, emotions which I share with them. Being observant, I have noticed that even my parents fumble when relating these feelings with the rest of the society.
With this backstory, when I'm asked about the question of identity, I struggle to give an answer and it more often than not leads me to deep thought. One classmate had once termed me a hybrid and that is partly true. My ideological beliefs are a mixture of both Indian and Western thought patterns and it has often become quite hard for me to balance both at an equilibrium. This was perhaps one of the reasons why I relate a lot with Orhan Pamuk's memoir, "Istanbul: Memories and the City" as it deals with this ever perplexing east-west dichotomy.
I have often tried reasoning it to myself that my first and foremost identity is that of an Indian and the second identity is that of a global citizen which seems quite befitting for the twenty-first century. However, coming to regional identity, I've always struggled to find an answer. I generally, prefer asserting myself as a Sikkimese first since I feel a lot more assimilated in Sikkimese culture. It has a big influence on my food habits and philosophy of life in general. When it comes to food, hardened Chhurpi, the world's hardest cheese made out of Yak milk, is one of my favourites, followed by Gundruk ko Jhol(broth made of fermented mustard greens), Sel roti(Nepali form of a pretzel) and of course Khabse(chips local to Sikkim and other parts where the Tibetan diaspora reside). An essential however, is probably Temi Tea. I'm a tea lover and though I consume, tea from other parts of the country, there is something special about the third flush from the Temi Tea garden. The essence is miles apart from that of normal CTC available.
Food does form a major part of life but for me, ideologies are even more important. Largely, I consider myself to be non-religious, I have a very strong attachment and fondess towards Tibetan Buddhism. I wouldn't have developed this, if it hadn't been for the Sikkimese part in me and it forms a big part of my life. I don't usually remember religious dates, but I do when it comes to Saga Dawa. I as a rule don't really read religious books but at times, I make it a point to go through His Holiness, the Dalai Lama's teachings and listen to Tibetan mantras when I feel distressed. I'm stating this with a chagrin here, but I've found ideas about life to be a lot more simplistic amongst people residing in the mountains. Sikkimese hospitality and politeness is something which can only be experienced and I feel, its something which I cannot explain with words.
Again, as a contradiction, I have a part of me which is Bengali which comes out when watching Satyajit Ray's films, reading Feluda, or Byomkesh Bakshi and while savouring "Bhapa Ilish", a delicacy in the Bengali cuisine. It also comes out while using boroline(an ointment used for ubiquitous purposes by Bengalis), something which I've only found in Kolkata or while listening to Rabindra Sangeet. My love for football, well, thats something very common to both Bengalis and Sikkimese people. Bhaichung Bhutia is from Sikkim and so are the majority of players in the Indian football team and India's first football club, Mohunbagan F.C, was founded in Kolkata by Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari.
I had mentioned previously that we now reside in the city of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. This too forms a vital part of me as quite a lot of my friends are either Tamils or Malayalis. I have taken a liking to South Indian food and towards some of the festivals. There have been culture shocks and our move wasn't easy but it gave us fresh perspective on a plethora of things. I have found a lot more straightforward approach towards life here which I cannot really relate with different branches of family residing elsewhere.
In the previous paragraphs, I mentioned about my cultural and probably ideological identity and now, it seems pertinent to mention about another aspect of identity, the linguistic one. Language forms a major part of identity and given this labyrinth of a background, it became quite natural for me to be raised as a polyglot as result of which I now speak English, Hindi, Bengali and Nepali quite fluently and have intermediate level of fluency in Ukrainian, which I have been learning for the past two and half years. I understand many more languages though which include Tamil, Malayalam, not too well as Tamil, Assamese, Odia, Punjabi and perhaps to an extent Marathi. Reading books from foreign countries and watching various foreign films has led me to use catchphrases in those languages.
On the surface, it seems really good that I'm a polyglot but, probably the language I'm most fluent in is English to the extent that eventhough, I begin a conversation at home in Bengali, I end it up in English. Its the language, I have spoken the most in my life and I think in it maybe. Moreover, I mix up Bengali lexical structure with that of Hindi and that really causes confusion when speaking as both the languages are quite similar yet miles apart. My Nepali accent is quite well, but my vocabulary is a bit under-developed and eventually, I switch over to English or maybe, I try to use Hindi words as again both the languages have quite a similarity. I will shortly, give another post on the effect of being multi-lingual but for now, let me divert this to the prime topic of identity.
I stated earlier that my first identity was that of an Indian and being multilingual and multi-cultural, I don't really understand the need of linguistic fanaticism and linguistic chauvinism. I do speak more English than the other languages, but I've raised in a household which has taught me to regard every language with the same stature. I feel its pretty important as India is one of the very few extremely linguistically diverse countries on the planet and as Indians, even as we don't speak the language of another region, we must give it the same regard as ours. This lesson has been ingrained into me so deep that whenever, a foreigner asks me about Indian identity and languages, I make it a point to mention almost every region of the country, even the ones where I haven't been to.
So after, all these musings, the question of identity is ever lingering. Due to my diverse background, I have developed the ability to relate with people from different parts of the country. I resonate with South Indians as much as I do with people from the north-east, the North Indians, East Indians and West Indians and even foreigners to an extent. From these interactions, I have gained a huge realization that our differences make us unique and despite all the multitude of differences, I have found all human beings to be fundamentally similar. So finally, to wind up, the identity which I think matters the most is that we're all Homo Sapiens at the end of the day followed by our national and global identity subsequently followed by ethnic and religious identities and that the diversity in human race is something to be cherished.
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