An Indian from West Virginia? I’ll explain…
Even though I’ve lived in Boston since 2003, if you ask me where I’m from, I will always answer the same way: I’m from West Virginia, despite having lived out of the state for more years now than I actually lived there.
I was born and raised in the Kanawha Valley to Indian immigrant parents who moved to Appalachia in the early 70s so my father could work in the chemical industry. I was lucky enough to grow up on a street with loving neighbors, and to have an extended network of aunties and uncles who became family over the course of our years together. Since leaving West Virginia, I’ve struggled to reconcile my nostalgia for the place where I grew up with the troubling realities of unemployment and addiction that confront the state today. In particular, I often find myself grappling with how those realities have led many West Virginians, including some who are like family to me, to vote for politicians who vocally denounce the existence of people like me.
Much of my writing pertains to the unique experience of growing up as a member of a tight-knit Indian community in a state where we comprised less than half a percentage point of the overall population. I also write opinion pieces and commentary regarding my experiences as a Civics teacher in the Boston Public Schools for the last 16 years.
