Un-Indian Yet Indian

By Aishwarya Rai

Born surrounded by the mighty Himalayas, lush green forest and chilly unpolluted air,

Where dogs are friendlier, little street friends,

Where Childhood brims with innocence getting bashed up my mommy dearest,

Our childhood play was to climb trees and jump to the sand from three-storey building,

Childhood passed and little did I know how Un-Indian was I until I was off to college,

Being catcalled "Eh, Chowmien! Eh, Chinkey! 

Being asked do you guys eat snakes? do you guys eat dogs?

Being asked where are you from?

I was and I will always be from India but the scrutiny made me question my very existence,

How do I prove to my fellow brethren that I am a part of India and I am 

made up of this Indian soil,

Being judged for our fair-skinned color and chinky eyes and our Mongolian features.

Childhood Innocence; fading! where we are judged by our looks,

Squeezing toothpaste till it's soul comes out,

Collecting plastics and putting it in the mother of all plastics,

not peeling the plastic cover from new things,

Being grounded for being naughty,

Where  getting 2rs was the happiest time of 90s kids like us,

How Indian can we get?

Will we always be interrogated and scrutinized?

Will there always be intolerance to our differences?

Our roots are from the Himalayas but our heart will always be Indian,

we get goose-bumps to our national anthem,

We got nothing to prove,

We are a square peg to the round hole, we will always be,

Our heart beats for this nation,

My everything will always be Indian yet somehow; Un-Indian.