Vignesh Chockalingam
Massachusetts

There aren’t really very many challenges in embracing Nagarathar culture and tradition in the US. It’s like the number of times that Kobe Bryant misses two shots in a row- very few. I personally don’t find embracing our Nagarathar culture a big challenge just because I (was born and) live in the US. 

One challenge outside could be our long traditional names. The way most Americans get our names wrong is really funny, but sometimes frustrating. Some of my baby brother’s teachers thought his name was pronounced Cannun, Kanaaan or Cannon instead of a simple Kannan, sounding exactly how it’s spelled. Vignesh turns into Vignish, Vignash or even Vignoosh. Once in my French class, the teacher was trying to prove the point that in French, if something is like another and you use one for another, you are incorrect. She was trying to compare a, meaning has in English, and á, meaning at in English. So she called me Vishnu and asked me if it was alright if I was called that. And as if it were planned, I said exactly what she wanted, that that was not my name and I would be called ‘Vignesh’. But the names aren’t that bad, you can always tell them how to pronounce your name.

Another problem is that I can’t worship God as much as I would in India. Here, I go to the temple about once a month and we have a pooja every Friday evening at home. In India, I could go to the temple every week and have a pooja every three days. The drive from our house to the temple is almost an hour, while in India I could get to the nearest temple in about 15 minutes. I should be glad that we have a temple to go to here. I also attend a Bajan every month in our chapter and sing religious songs. This exposes me to our religion as well as our rich Nagarathar culture which I am not sure will happen if I were in India. Along with American holidays like the Fourth of July and Christmas, we still celebrate Hindu festivals and holidays such as Deepavali, Pongal and Tamil New Year. Even though I don’t get to worship God as much as I would like, I still get to follow my religion in America.  I also visit India once in 2-3 years and see what happens in our weddings and other important functions/festivals: I still remember the temple ‘Paalkudam’ that happened in my Iyyah and Aayaal’s native place in the summer of 2005. My grand parents visit us and fill me in for the rest of the things I need to know about our culture and tradition.

I find that staying in tradition is somewhat hard when it comes to eating outside. It happens when I try to find something to eat in the school cafeteria; it’s hard to not eat beef or pork in America because these are in almost every food. It’s hard to know if something has beef and pork or not. Blahhh! You can’t find South Indian restaurants in many places, but, we eat the typical idli, dosa, sambar, sadham, etcetera at home.  For some people, it’s hard to speak and read Tamil, but it isn’t for me, thanks to our Indian Sunday schools. Most of my Nagarathar friends read and speak Tamil.  A lot of our families have Sun TV, KTV, or Jaya TV, so we all get our dose of Tamil serials and cooking shows. My family downloads Tamil movies off the internet so we can watch the latest Tamil movies. Even if I don’t watch too many Tamil movies, I’ll still remember and speak Tamil forever.   

One thing that is kind of annoying is that not many people have heard of Tamil people, they always think you are a North Indian and speak Hindi at first. Another challenge is that some of us are afraid to expose our Tamil Nagarathar culture to other Americans. Some of us wouldn’t want to wear a veshti outside thinking some school boys would go ‘Is that dude wearing a skirt?’ People around here are mature enough to respect various cultures and their different ways, so we shouldn’t care so much. Some of us wouldn’t ever take idli or any of our traditional foods to school for lunch because they’re scared that others would make fun. But no one really cares about what you have for lunch except for your parents, so no worries.

The thing is none of these so called “challenges” are really challenges. You can always correct someone if he or she pronounces your name incorrectly, and most people now say my name and my brother’s name right anyway. I still get to pray to God, and if I prayed way more or less, it wouldn’t make much of a difference to me.  What matters is that I remain a Hindu following our Nagarathar culture and tradition all my life. I celebrate a ton of Hindu holidays and festivals along with American holidays, and enjoy eating Paniyaaram and Kavanarisi.  I continue reading and speaking Tamil, sing religious songs, and also keep up with all the latest Surya movies.  If I say embracing Nagarathar culture and tradition in the US is hard, I would be lying, and lying is not good. As they say in Showbiz, “That’s a wrap”.