The White Hindu has moved

The White Hindu has moved! This blog is no longer updated, but Ambaa is still writing The White Hindu every weekday at Patheos.com.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Made It

As I frequently say, life is a journey and I doubt I will ever arrive at a destination in my process of learning and questioning and growing. I'm not interested in locking down answers, I am interested in always being open to new ways of understanding.

However, in terms of the cultural confusion that this blog started over, there are ways in which I feel that I have achieved something. My experiences now are different than they were when it comes to interacting with the world at large.

A year ago when I wore a sari to an event, someone would hustle me into the bathroom and redo my pleats. This year I got asked to dress other women in saris, both for the Bollywood party and my own mom for going to an ashram.

A year ago I felt self-conscious about my wearing Indian clothes. This year an Indian girl told me that I had such ease with them that she could tell I wore them frequently.

Last week I went to FedEx for work and I was wearing my professional looking gray salwar kameez. The blonde woman behind the desk asked if I was wearing Indian clothes and we started chatting. It turned out her husband is Indian and she showed me a picture of her beautiful teenage daughter.

All these examples are about clothes! Sometimes I can be such a girl. But there are other ways in which my life has changed, they just aren't as easy to pin point.

I'm truly living my life from the mindset of being a white Hindu and it's working for me. I feel confident that I belong in the life that I built for myself. I don't apologize and I don't offer explanation for the many Indian aspects of my life (like my white board at work where I track my projects in Hindi!)

10 comments:

  1. That is wonderful! I don't think that it was ever *just* about clothing though, and I don't believe you should apologize FOR it when it happens. Like it or not, we're identified by what we wear and/or how we look... and our clothing is an outward expression of who we are on the inside. I'm glad to see how far you've come!! I am currently saving up money to buy myself a few saris to wear- one for a wedding in a few months and one for "every day". I've worn kurta tops for as long as I can remember but I would love to feel equally as comfortable in a properly wrapped & draped sari!
    Please keep blogging- you help the 'rest of us' (western Hindus) feel like we're not out here on our own! BTW- I thought of you today when I wore a bindi (small maroon teardrop shape) to the grocery store for the first time!

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  2. Wonderful! I need more pale people in saris :D

    I think my posts will be slowing down permanently as I've said most of what I had to say, but I won't shut down completely, because you never know when inspiration will strike or something worth noting will happen!

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  3. I do not wear sari, here it would be too much for my children. This place is very judgemental about such things and they are teenage boys with hopes of being "normal".

    Lol by the time they are the age of my oldest son and daughter (19 & 20) they will know that this is impossible with a Sanata Dharma upbringing within a tiny town in KY.

    I went through an identity crisis over my inability or urge to take on another culture. But thanks to many Hindu friends I finally got to the place that the clothes and culture can be any type...Dharma applies well to every outfit!:P

    But, it is sooo nice when you can blend it into a happy mix as you have.<3

    I own sari, and will wait till I can experiment.:P

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  4. I consider it to be a small life mission to introduce the world to Indian fashion, and show people that they're just clothes (lovely, comfortable clothes). I get a little excited when I see celebrities wearing saris out in public.

    But yay for ordinary folk, too! I like the comment you got about the grey suit; that's pretty high praise.

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  5. Very inspiring.
    http://mahaperiyavaa.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/the-master-i-found-robert-walser/

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  6. Happy new year Aaamba .. it's Kala Yuga 5113 :( .. now approx 426887 years remaining. Long way to go..

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  7. Happy New Year to all of you as well! :)

    (Oh how much worse it will get, eh, Akshay?)

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  8. Zombiedrag, I am also trying to inspire more people to wear Indian clothes! So far no one is interested in following my lead ;)

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  9. "I need more pale people in saris"

    Yeah not sure I have the legs for it!

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