An Indian Thanksgiving & Ketchup and Cutlets!

We drove all the way to New Jersey to spend Thanksgiving week with Shoji's family. We had a great time of celebrating Priya and Stephen's birthday with all the aunties and uncles. Mummy feed us authentic Indian food all week, we had chicken curry, goat curry, mean curry...nice curry! I had to drink a lot of milk and eat lots of raita (yogurt salad) to keep my internal temperature below en fuego!

Then the ladies of the house (Mummy, Shiji-mama, and Shoji) put on an awesome display of versatility and made an authentic American style turkey dinner for Thanksgiving day (maybe a little spice rub just to liven it up a bit). Sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberries and Shiji-mama's famous pear & apple pie. Uncle Alan fasted all day getting ready for the big meal. We were suppose to eat at 1pm - but you must remember that many family members operate on IST (Indian Standard Time) - so we started eating at about 3pm. It's a little challenging keeping things hot for a couple hours... Needless to say uncle Alan was ravenous by this time, he probably ate half the turkey himself, hot or cold it didn't much matter.

Shoji and I also had a fun meeting with the young adults of Shoji's Indian Church. We had a discussion time around the identities that second generation Indians struggle with.

1. Traditional Identity - This is the traditional Indian culture that they grow up with in the home. The culture of their parents and ancestors. Things like arranged marriages, family expectations for education and career. Pleasing the parents, think of the Indian movie 3KG "kubby kushi kubby gum". I am sure I misspelled that but I got it phonetically!

2. Current Cultural Identity - Growing up in the US, having lots of US friends - a culture of high individualism and choosing your own destiny, you can be whatever you want! You don't have to be a doctor or engineer, really!! This culture sees dating and choosing your own spouse as the relational norms and so much of this is in tension with the traditional values of the parents and family. How are young Indian adults to deal with these clashing worlds?

3. Spiritual Identity - But as Christians what does our faith say about these things above? Is there a way for faith to transcend cultures? Of course this is where Shoji's and my story comes in, we have been able to navigate the cultural waters and have a growing marriage where we like both of our families and value the best of both cultures. It's like having ketchup and cutlets!! Ketchup an American staple and cutlets are a main stay in the Indian diet put them together and wham!! You can have the best of both worlds! The key is the parents and the next generation must be humble and open on a faith level and engage in honest communication to talk about what values are most important in life. This dialogue must happen in order to create honoring and loving relationships that can last a life time.

So that was our Indian Thanksgiving!