This Man Gave Up His US Citizenship To Become Indian

Over 40 years ago, this American decided he never wanted to live anywhere else but India. And so, he became an Indian. 🇺🇸▶︎ 🇮🇳

Transcript

00:00I have been in India, well, the day after tomorrow, it will be 39 years.

00:22I came to continue studying Indian classical dancing, Southern Indian classical dancing,

00:49which I had started studying already in Berkeley, California.

00:58I landed in Madras, which is now known as Chennai, and I spent a year there.

01:04I loved it, but it didn't love me.

01:07The weather, I had never experienced such weather, the food, I had never experienced

01:12such spicy food.

01:13I didn't know what had hit me, basically, but one level I was on a high because I loved

01:17everything about the people, the language, the whole way people lived, and of course

01:22the dance.

01:23On the other end, I spent most of my time lying on my back staring at the ceiling fan

01:28because I was too ill to move.

01:42like you said, it was just a fan.

01:44I was just a fan.

01:45The government directed me to a court and there I came upon a clerk sitting behind a

01:49little cubby hole who shoved some old yellow parchment type papers at me, that turned out

01:54to be for people who were fleeing during partition and you had to name all of the properties

01:59and all that you were leaving back in Pakistan.

02:01So, that obviously wasn't the right place.

02:04And then I heard the officers working in the office, whispering to each other, you think

02:10he's from Kashmir?

02:11That too, in Afghanistan?

02:33And the translation of Go To Comfort Food doesn't exist in Hindi.

02:38But that comfort food is Khichdi.

02:40Whenever I feel down or when I'm in a bad mood, I eat Khichdi.

02:47Then everything is fine.

03:11And then one of the fellows said,

03:13this is a foreign diplomat, let him come forward.