Do you stop your kids from saying “Thanks” and “Sorry” at home? But encourage it outside of home?

Do you catch yourself saying “I love you” to your own parents in India only to be responded with a “what’s wrong with you” look?

Do you or your kids engage in Bilingual or Bicultural puns only a few can understand?

Unsure how to respond when Kids say they love Christmas a little more than Diwali?

If you answered “of course!” to all of the questions above, then you are in right company!

 

CultureGraft was born to use the advantage of being at the crossroads of Indian and American culture and raise third culture kids. At CultureGraft, we embrace our cultural conflicts, dwell in it, process it, and celebrate the birth of something totally new that braids the best of both worlds, with a renewed, deep understanding of both cultures. 

Who is CultureGraft For?

Anyone with a significant Indian/South Asian and American component in their bicultural/multicultural reality (especially living in the US with kids in the age group of 8-18). But it is just as relevant to Indians and South Asians living anywhere else in the world, foreign nationals living in India or even Indians faced with a growing westernized worldview.

Why Bicultural in an age of Global Mindset?

While we are all about nurturing global mindsets, our blog focuses on a deep dive in the two specific cultures of Indian and American, dominating in a family/individual context, so we can zoom in and identify the particular strengths and odds of the Indian-American culture broth. But of course, a lot of what we explore here applies to a lot of cultures at crossroads, especially between the East and the West and we would love to hear from all of you about relevant experiences!

What we do

We use our cultural conflict zone as a creative laboratory to bounce ideas and thoughts, as a process of self-discovery, as a space to experience magical moments of reinvention. More importantly, we do all this to strengthen relationships through fun conversations and activities, as a space to build a strong community and of course have loads of fun doing it!

Why we do it

A conflicted state of mind is an opportunity for big changes – it pushes us to find deeper shared goals and vision, helps us identify all the filters we use, and emerge as stronger, happier and more aware than before.

Our Story

As first gen Indian Immigrants in the US, in the 21st century, thriving at the intersection of two worlds is kind of a dominant theme in our lives! Like most people growing up in India, the land of many sub cultures and languages – most of us are cultural chameleons to some degree! At our home, I’m a South Indian married to an East Indian (but raised in North India) and between my husband, me and our 13-year-old – we know English, Hindi, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, and some French (No prizes for guessing who is fluent in which)!

But even though our work got us several times across the ocean, even though we are a generation that prides ourselves in being global nomads and even though we live in a totally connected world than immigrants in the early or mid 20th century, its only when we settled into another country for more than a decade that the enormous cultural change started settling in on us.

Still strongly with one foot in both worlds (Our immediate family, relatives and close friends live in India), we are constantly adapting, amazed and thankful for the perspectives that our braided world brings to us.  This blog is our effort to mindfully allow and capture all the a-ha moments as they continue to happen, connect with others in the journey, and build a stable, strong third culture that we engage in and grow with our kids.

About Me

Having worked several years in the corporate world as a Learning Designer, I’m hard wired to constantly observe, analyze and optimize the process of learning – whether it is in learning to parent, learning about cultures, learning about relationships or learning to cook or craft! But what I enjoy doing best these days is to teach and have fun with languages, facilitate culture activities and discussions, and make DIY crafts and silly videos with my daughter!

Pin It on Pinterest