Hi! I’m Navya Joseph, my pronouns are she/her and I prefer to be called by my first name. I am a sophomore here at Baruch College, majoring in Accounting. My childhood was kind of all over the place. I was born in India and then brought to the US a few months later. Then I had to go back to India with my three siblings so that my mom can focus on getting her nursing degree. So my siblings and I stayed in India for 3 years, under the supervision of my grandma and uncle. I completed Kindergarten through 2nd grade there and then came to the US in 2011. I have been residing in the city of Yonkers ever since. Some of my hobbies include playing the guitar, singing, journaling, and going on daily walks with my dog.
The first thing that popped into my mind when I read the prompt is this podcast I’ve been listening to for a while now. It’s called “Difficult-ish”, a podcast about different South Asian narratives. Once I moved to America in 2011, I struggled to find a sense of community. Ever since the third grade, I was the only Indian kid in all my classrooms. I feel like everyone around me perceived me to be more Indian than I had ever felt. I believed that because I didn’t take classical Indian dance classes growing up or didn’t feel as connected to my religion, I was somehow less Indian than other Indians. But this podcast showed me that being South Asian goes beyond just our traditions; it made me realize the one thing that will always connect us South Asians to each other is our experience. The hosts, Mohuya and Mashnun, have conversations about several topics like boundaries in a South Asian home, the stigma around moving out in our community, our not-so-difficult names, and so on. Listening to these conversations made me feel like someone understood me and how this struggle to find our identity as South Asians is a universal experience. I would recommend this podcast to anyone. You don’t have to be South Asian to relate to some of the topics and will come out of it learning more if anything.
Below is a painting done by one of the hosts of the podcast, Mohuya Khan. It’s called, Unleash Your Inner Tiger.
Hi Navya i really liked how you related to a podcast rather than a book or movie . It shows how there’s many different types of medias can reach people . Glad it helped you also !
Hey Navya, I know exactly how you felt when you first arrived in the US. When I first came to America, I wasn’t American enough for my peers and they perceived me as a foreigner. I recently went back to my home country and felt like a foreigner in my own country. It’s quite common to feel like this as an immigrant and just know you are not alone.
Hello Navya, while I was reading your introduction, I find out that we have some things in common. For example we both majoring in accounting and I came to the US two years after you did, and this help me understand how you felt when you came to this country.