Mansi Sangar
mansisangar@gmail.com
Now that I look behind and think, its all destiny. When I roam around in the pretty country side of boulder, Colorado. A small girl from a simple middle class family from akola, Maharashtra is walking about the foothills of the world famous Rockies. Being born an brought up in this small town, my upbringing was always diverse, what with my dad being a Punjabi Brahmin and my mom a kokanastha. Because of the culture surrounding me in Akola, I would say I have more of a spirit of a maharashtrian when it comes to thinking about life in a practical way. Having that simplistic attitude in life has been one of the teachngs given by parents. I would have been a completely different person, if these values would have been absent and in the ambience that I grew in.
It was very easy for me to adjust with the life style that is followed in the United States of America. After all being self dependent, independent and living life as it comes is one thing that I would attribute to the teachings of my maternal uncle (Mr Arun Divekar, a eminent politician - editor) who was one unique example of what an individual can do in any system. Moving to Mumbai for four years for my engineering brought out the survivor in me. After all living in 'Aamchi Mumbai' has a synonym: Survival. Nothing after that was new to me as I had experienced almost all kinds of interactions with people during those four years.
It has definitely been a different experience, coming to the super power of the world. I being the only person of color in my department has taught me to be more and more proud of what I am and what culture I represent. I feel immense pride when I tell Americans about our culture, about Mumbai, about Growing up in a small town in India and yes, even about Bollywood. It indeed is an overwhelming feeling to be standing in a 10 day aarti during Ganesh Festival, in some fiends' small apartment and sing aartis, eat the Prasad made by an enthusiastic colleague. Yes, there are times when you want to leave everything you have and go back... go back to your motherland, but then it's the challenge of achieving more, traveling more, watching the world and telling them about you and your roots that makes you procrastinate that plan a little more.