where are you from??

I never thought of this before as I have been thinking of recently. When people at here ask me where am I from I would say India. For most people here India is one mass lumped together. Moreover, India was not this one lump before were colonized. India as it is was created by the act of mapping it. Before that India as we call it today was a bunch of about 560 self-governing ‘princely states’. This country has more than 20 official languages and 1000 dialects. It has extremely diverse cuisine that used varied ingredients, spices and cooking methods depending on the region. They do not understand though India is seventh largest by size it has a population of about 1.2 billion people; this means every sixth person in the world is an India. Therefore, it unfair when I fill forms here I need to tick on Asians despite the fact that we are Indians are 1.2 Bn, while there are just 300 Mn. Americans.

Anyways the bigger problem I grapple with is when some people do know that India is not just a mass lumped together and they ask me where am I from in India!!! I would be like I am from Hyderabad but my parents are from Rajasthan. If I say, I am a hyderabadi the next question would be I you speak in Telugu. Then I am like no not really just some broken bits. I can ask people’s name and for food in telugu. But I do know Marwadi. I cannot even really claim to be a Rajasthani because I have just visited there and not ever lived there……………so my big question is what does one say one asked where are you from? Who /what decides where am I from? Does it change depending on situations? Or where I am from is where I feel I am from? For today I am from Hyderabad but tomorrow I might be a Rajasthani!