I am a NRI.
Before you conjure up an image of a south Indian software engineering geeky guy coding away to glory in the good old US of A, let me stop your mental machinations right there. Yes, I am a south Indian but the similarities end there. I am a banking finance professional (woman) based in Hong Kong (Yes, the one of which you read all those democracy protests about). If you are one of those who often fantasize about international travel, I am here to tell you not all is bright and shiny as it seems.
Over the course of the last decade, I have travelled across the southern and the eastern hemisphere quite a bit either alone for work or for “vacay” along with my long suffering husband. During my most recent trip to Harbin (a city in China located close to the north korean and russian borders), my husband and I travelled with a group of locals and 3 energetic 5-year-olds eager to experience the promised ice wonders in the city. The locals we met and our travelling companions were pleasant and quite enjoyed the novelty of two foreign looking faces who cannot speak Mandarin. Our English was conversational lessons to two of our travelling companions who spoke in halting terms. It was then that we learned the funky cultural cliches that Bollywood offered up to those outside India. I was dumbfounded when one of our fellow travellers (whom I will call J) commented that I looked exactly like a Bollywood bride in one of my social media wedding posts. I wondered if they had been watching 2 states, though I still cannot understand the comparison. My wedding was a traditional tamilian wedding and I am no Alia look-alike. But it’s a lot clear now why Justin Trudeau wore all those sherwanis on his India trip.
Another traveller hesitatingly wondered why my husband and my father in law were topless in the wedding photos, a question which I struggled to answer. Why do we have topless grooms in the tam-brahm weddings anyway? J admitted in slow and scandalous tones that she would flip her hubby for Hrithik Roshan in a heartbeat if he would have her. Ah, but I did tell her that 300 million Indian women have been trying the same thing for decades now without the slightest chance of succeeding. The tour guide was very helpful though we did have some trouble over the AI translation (since we cannot speak Chinese and the guide couldn’t speak English, the phone AI translation came to our rescue) which led us to dragging two bulky backpacks and two huge suitcases over four inches of snowfall while our travelling companions sauntered empty handed.
Back home in Hong Kong, I frequently visit a well known south Indian restaurant chain that boasts of side by side posters of MS Subbulakshmi and our dear old Thalaivar. Nothing evokes nostalgia for Chennai and home than eating a sambhar vada while the super star grins down at you from his lofty perch.
I almost always search for Indian eateries irrespective of the country I am in, which is why I had the novel experience of watching framed Modi photos all around me in a Phuket restaurant. My Indian face attracts an avalanche of Hindi pleasantries whichever restaurant I visit, only to harden at my English responses. Ah, but I will never get to live down skipping those Hindi lessons at school.
During my visit to Sydney, the immigration was surprisingly uneventful though my husband and I were slightly held up at the baggage retrieval arena. A customs executive sauntered to us with a form and demanded that we declare any food items we were importing into the country with our baggage. When we replied in negative, she peered suspiciously at us and pointedly asked “No pickles? No spices?”
When we shook our head, she looked dumbfounded at our Indian passports before flouncing away to the next passenger.
Needless to say, none of these quirky experiences have reduced my love of travel and in bidding adieu, what can I say but “Mera Bharat Mahan Hai”.
“This post is a part of ‘DECADE Blog Hop’ #DecadeHop organised by #RRxMM Rashi Roy and Manas Mukul.
I could visualize the face of immigration officer expecting pickles in your luggage! Loved the light hearted peak into the life of an NRI.
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Glad you liked it Disha!
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Expecting pickle in your bag, that’s quite normal, in fact, I remember when I was travelling to Singapore, the same question was asked to me by them.
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indeed!
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This cracked me up, I could actually visualize two people unable to speak Mandarin in a foreign land. Been there, done that. I enjoyed the post thoroughly.
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haha, glad to see a fellow linguistically challenged traveller.
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That was a quirky and fun post to read. I really enjoyed how your Indianism was shown ahead of all at the places you visited. Wish you many travel plans in the years to come.
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Thanks.Geethica, Glad you liked it
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AAH! another Indian blogger in Hongkong. It was quite insightful to read about your traveling trysts. Needless to say that it was entertaining to the core.
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Hey thanks. glad you enjoyed it.
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I wish I could have trotted the globe like you, that is inspite of your warning that all is not rosy. Anyways speaking of the topless groom, I recollect I had invited a christian friend over my house for ganpati festival and she asked me as to why the lord is topless. Well … I too didn’t have a reply back then. Now I can reply that we live in a tropical country and in the good old days when we hadn’t discovered stitching we would wrap ourselves with cloth, which was unstitched.
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Thanks Mahesh and here’s me wishing you a travel filled decade ahead!
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I have always been a fan of your writing style and the more I read your posts I can’t stop but admire your talent of storytelling. The transitions in your posts are smooth. The write-ups bind the reader to get engaged and the humour… it is rich and cleverly placed at intervals in the whole article.
I loved your take on travelling and incidents related. May Thalaiva watch you from the lofty perch and you travel more of this peculiar but wonderful world 😉
#readbypreetispanorama
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Thanks Preeti, so glad you enjoyed it. Hope you have a lovely travel filled decade ahead too!
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Once we had a customs guy open bags, and almost made us describe every food item we were carrying. It was so irritating. At the end he smiled and said, ok thats interesting. 🙄
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Indians and food are inseparable and the custom guys take it more seriously than us. I remember declaring every single food item in the immigration form of Australia to avoid the struggle later. Loved your light and honest take.
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Haha, loved your light and humorous write-up. I could imagine the face of the customs officer after not finding pickles & spices in your bags, some things are just so Indian. Wish you all the best for many more travel experiences in the coming years.
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Thanks Neha. Hope you have a travel filled decade too ahead.
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Loved the humorous take and the Indian food habits. Food and Indians go hand in hand
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😄 indeed
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😊
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So I am not an NRI but I’ve definitely experienced some of the same issues! Actually, some of my funniest stories related to travel have happened in India itself.
On returning from our honeymoon in the Maldives, the guy at the immigration counter in Delhi International Airport asked me to prove that I was married to my husband, because he suspected we were unmarried and traveling together. Not only was the asking of proof shocking in itself, I wondered what’s wrong with two people unmarried people travelling together?!!!
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Wow, really? That’s a new one and a shocker.
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Yep!
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Though a little bit of a humorous take at your decade, it was a lot of travelling and I envy that(Just Kidding.)
I do however, like the way you explained your decade in the form of your travel experiences. i would love to travel and just like that officer, I am shocked as well. Did you really did not have any pickles? haha
— rightpurchasing
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bwahahahaha. Indeed no pickles and that was only coz we were visiting a friend and there was plenty of pickles and spices to go around in his house😂
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awwww this is amazingg!
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Those were quite interesting anecdotes from your decade and I am glad to know that you enjoy travelling. Home is where the heart is howsoever far you may travel. Hope this one is even more rewarding in terms of health, travel and more interesting stories.
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Thanks and hope you have an intereating decade ahead too!
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So good to read you after so long, Lavs! After having lived in the South I face a lot of these chuckle worthy queries too! Wishing you more travels in the next decade!
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I know! We probably belong to the most stereotyped indians club! The acronym W.P.B.T.T.M.S.I.C is a mouthful though 😂
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I love travelling too. Your journey has inspired me too to travel across the globe
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Haha.. that was a matching experience when I visited Japan for office work. I hunted Indian food but failed. And coincidentally met with a few Indians as my face was like an Indian. They were South Indians and I am from North. However meeting them was no less than a movie scene.
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I think stereotyping is universal 😂
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What a travelogue and a hilarious one at that. I loved the beginning where my assumptions were humbly put in place by you.
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Glad you liked it!
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That was such a fun-filled and light read. I can completely relate with the customs thing, happens everytime! The fun and thrill of being an NRI never ends. So happy to see you pen this for our blog hop 🙂
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Thanks Rashi, it ain’t always fun though through those immigration q’s 😂
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You have written with so much clarity that it was so easy to visualise everything. I liked the humor and the relatable element a lot since I travel a lot myself. I wish I could see the expression on that Custom officer’s face…Hahahah…Good one Lavanya. Keep traveling. Keep sharing stories. Keep carrying pickles 😀 😀
#DecadeHop #RRxMM
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You have a happy travel filled decade ahead😂
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love from India!
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First I want to tell you that I really liked your ‘travelling NRI’ thing. It is a wonderful post. I keep smiling throughout reading it. Your writing style is really good.
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Thanks Neha. Glad to hear you liked it.
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What a quirky post! It cracked me up amd enjoyed every biy of it! Being an Indian you didn’t have ‘spices’ in your baggage! That’s blasphemy 😜
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That’s what the immigration officer thought anyway 😜
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