Vishaka Desai: World as Family

    

On Nov. 10th, Dr. Vishaka Desai delivered an impactful presentation explaining her book "World as Family: A Journey in Multi-rooted Belonging" through her perspective as an Indian-American woman as well as a global citizen. She described how her travels to America not only provided her with the perspective of cultural interconnectedness but also the concept of fluid identity. 

    People usually think of identity as a single self-descriptor, but her emphasis on having multiple identities gave me a better understanding of what it means to be a global citizen. She emphasized that globalization urges people to build cultural and empathic connections across the world rather than one community, nation, and people. 

I found her response to the question about identity particularly impactful--she expanded on how her identities may vary within different contexts: "Sometimes I'm an Indian American, sometimes I'm American of Indian origin, sometimes I'm Asian American, sometimes I'm an Indian American who lives in New York." 

  I was able to read her experiences about the Trauma of Return in Chapter 7 of her book, World As Family: A Journey of Multi-Rooted Beginnings and it left me thinking about the questions: In what ways did she have to protect her identity while in Mumbai and America? In other words, how has her identity been an advantage and a disadvantage throughout her life? This presentation allowed me to shift the way I perceive the concept of identity and my role as a global citizen. It is not that she was necessarily hiding her identity, more so that she was integrating multiple parts of her identity when necessary, truly highlighting the meaning of a "Multi-rooted identity." I will leave you all with a quote that resonated with me during the event. "Only those with a limited mindset think of blood relatives as their family, while those with magnanimous minds think of the world as their family."

     Thank you Dr. Vishaka Desai!