OCI: The New Species

Stranger 1: are you an indian?
OCI: yes, a little.

Stranger 2: are you a hindu, muslim, or christian?
OCI: I .. I am anika.





I am part of the flock of a new international species that is confusing locals, government officials, employers, and bankers across India. The emerging group of 'Overseas Citizens of India' are not Indians, are Indians, or were Indians. We are Indians who are properly from India and just live abroad (overseas), or we have Indian heritage (that makes us 'Citizens'?).


Here are some of highlighted experiences of being part of the new breed of OCIs:

Infinite Visa: I have a 'lifelong' visa to India - sort of. Border control officials have managed to maintain a staunch business approach to the lifelong visa. The visa doesn't expire, but every 10 years one's passport does. So, when you are suddenly on your last month of legal international travel, you will also be scrambling to re-apply for your OCI card which conveniently never expires but obviously needs to be renewed with your passport.

No registration: Many visitors to India need to register with local officials. You can either be lucky and be an American, for whom registration is only obligatory after a few months (I think), or you get the really really short end of the stick and be from Pakistan, and need to visit the local police depot on a daily basis or risk expulsion from the country.

Work, Live, Play: The best thing for me is that I can work here. Americans who want to work in India need to get paid a commensurate rate to US salaries. This law is meant to protect Indians who are skilled and want top jobs, and is also meant to support Americans who will probably eventually go back to the states and don't want to be broke.

Some frustrating elements:

Banking: the majority of banks want to exploit this new class of Indians & sort-of-Indians who are bringing in remittances, savings, and taking out loans. But most banks have not really clarified the paperwork for OCI accounts, largely because the Indian Government has said that OCIs are classified as Persons of Indian Origins (PIOs), but have some different benefits. Its the square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square issue.

Needless to say, when I went to the local bank with the OCI-account forms found on their main website.. they had never seen them before, and it took 3 trips for them to acknowledge the credibility of their own paperwork.

Culture/heritage/identity: If you are Indian, you should know the culture, language and norms. Thats just the way it is. Since I don't, I am often embarrassed to admit that I am Indian, and have to go into this long and toppling explanation of my birth-place, schooling, mother's linguistic abilities, and so on.

But!
Above all, being of 'Indian origin' and having the ability to live and work here has been a tremendously fulfilling experience. I love going to Hindi classes and finally being able to speak with my grandmother. I love eating with my hands - soupy food or solid, wet or dry, spicy or.. ultra spicy. And I feel that I can understand my dad better by living in the world he came out of.

Going back to one's roots is a beautiful thing.

What are yours? Do you know? What do they mean to you?

keep exploring!

-----
Lots of love,
:ani

Greening Delhi, home-style.

The weeks and weekends have circled around each other too easily. 

I guess that's what happens when you work for ... 14 days straight. 

So this post will start with the weekend, the first one since being back in India.

PLANTS!

My mother is a gardener. She finds solace in soil. Her experience goes beyond 'getting her hands dirty' -  she can convince neighborhood kids, my brother's friends, and any of my previous boyfriends  to pitch in to her botanical missions (i.e. pruning high tree limbs, carrying insanely heavy bags of mulch, wheelbarrowing garden detritus).

This weekend I decided that I needed a floral make-over. Plants make me happy, remind me of my mom, and give me inspiration for art-making. I had been avoiding investing in the flat I am living in - not sure how long I'll be here and feeling challenged by lack of IKEA, the Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc etc.

As I was walking back from a different adventure (graffiti walk post coming soon!), i saw a small semi-formal nursery (everything here is pretty semi-formal come to think of it). After a considerable amount of time speaking Hindi to the other non-native hindi speaking plant-sellers (from Hyderabad they spoke telegu), it became evident that 'indoor' and 'outdoor' are the best common denominators even for buying plants in Delhi.

I bought 6 plants, asked for one as a 'gift', and shocked them as i helped transfer the plastic-bag plants into clay pots (also free). The video below is of the lift i took from the nursery to home... on the plant delivery guy's cycle wagon.

New York - New Delhi - New Year.

i have arrived in delhi (!!) the weather was perfect when i landed mid-afternoon. i felt slow and spacious, easing into my re-location with a sense of awareness and welcoming. the taxi driver was kind enough to wait for me while i bought a coffee, although he did tell me just to get one later.

but home, didn't quite have that feeling. not to sound pretentious to 'western' ears, but our maid hasn't come in a few days and the place is DIRTY. Dust that has coated all the furniture and surfaces, and seemed immediately leave a cloudy, grindy, residue on my eyes, hair and fingertips. The place smelt distinctly like rotting cabbage. By all estimations the kitchen could have last been cleaned when V & I left. Three weeks ago.

I decided to try the washroom. My toilet doesn't flush. I have to turn on a water heater (called a 'geezer' by the locals) and wait for my hot shower. My hot bath. My hot... water coming out of a below-waste-tap that I need to crouch under because of how calcified the bottom of the 'bathing bucket' has become. 

Oh, I'm so post-flight discombobulated & dehydrated! Is the water from the cooler that one time was contaminated safe to drink now? How I miss tap water. Maybe NYC water is also splattered with too many chemicals for us to count, but at least it won't kill me right away.

These are definitely different experiences of home. What even was home like when I landed in New York? Did it really smell of coffee or did I make that up? Was everything really glowing, or was it just seeing my mom drenched in early morning sunlight on the yellow sofa?

I lit some incense, whispered blessings to welcome the new year, and got to unpacking. Girls gotta do what girls gotta do. Delhi will be challenging, but I'm up for it. 

I went on a 45 minute walk to clear my head, wincing from the smell of urine, suffocating just from breathing, and shaking my head solemnly at the silhouette of a man huddled around an incinerating pile of garbage in a vacant trash collection site.

When I'm here, the relentless push of human life keeps me moving forward. I am sticking to my New York City-isms and am focusing on not only doing more this year, but doing it better. I am determined to gain a deeper understanding of the realities of this place. To engage with it, learn from it, and grow into, through, and out of this experience. 

And more and more I see social, environmental, and political issues here are not simply seeping out of Indian soil, as if they are endemic qualities - this bargaining, laziness, ruthlessness and the usual criticism. While corruption is commonplace, people are entrapped in a complicated and aggressive colonial history and disembodied global economy.

Does that mean there is nothing to be done? History is over with - better accept it? The political economy is too massive to deal with? Men, women, and children will have to take whatever jobs they can if they want to survive?

No, I don't believe so. And there are too many great people and organizations working towards a more equal, healthy, democratic, and breathable India for me to shrug my shoulders. These challenges are not something I can fix, but I sure as hell can be a part of the dialogue and action that strive for change. Fo Sho.

Happy new year everyone.

Keep it up - your happiness, your work, your craft, art, sport, dance, food, you name it. 

Just do it, and do it better.

Invest in yourself with greater attentiveness and appreciation. 

You can at least thank yourself for that at the end of the day.