Across Time Zones: How the Modern Indian Diaspora Stays Close to Home

It takes a lot to get used to waking up in a different time zone than your family and then having to spend the rest of the day figuring out when they’ll be having breakfast, lunch, or dinner while they are thousands of miles away. By now, I have gotten so used to having to figure out the time in India while I am here in the US that I find myself switching to India time without even realizing it. So, by the time I know that it is morning in the US, I already know that it is morning in India too and that my parents would be having their morning tea.

It’s easier than ever for people to cross borders these days, but for those who do, the distance between themselves and their loved ones can be almost too much to bear.

Millions of people abroad are engaged in a daily struggle to maintain contact with family and friends from their homeland. How have communication tools changed to enable people to maintain contact and show their love across borders?

So there you have it: late-night video calls and all sorts of quiet digital gestures that fill our days with the sort of love and support that travels over vast distances of land and sea. Modern life, it seems, truly does have the capacity to allow us to keep our loved ones close at hand.

The Evolution of Distance and Digital Intimacy

Cross-border communication in the past required a lot of planning and could get very expensive. International calling cards, for example, used to charge many hidden fees, and people would have to schedule landline calls at odd hours of the night. They would also have to wait for weeks for a letter to arrive at their doorstep.

Today, the friction has largely disappeared.

This shift has created a new kind of ambient awareness. We don’t just share major life milestones anymore. We share the mundane, everyday moments that actually form the fabric of our relationships. And that’s the point. Being present in someone’s life no longer requires being in the same room.

So what does this constant connectivity actually give us?

The real value of connectivity today is to become aware of the minutest details of each other’s lives on an ongoing basis. You become so aware of the banal details of another’s life in real time that you eventually feel as though you are right there with them even though you are thousands of miles away.

Practical Support as a Language of Love

There are, of course, many practical ways to show support to loved ones. Help with everyday tasks like shopping for groceries or with repairing a leaky faucet, for example. As mentioned above, physical presence is not required to support a family member’s needs.

Financial care or support is another way to show love to family and relatives. In many cultures, it is a sign of responsibility and of being there for the people who matter to you.

Maybe it is just human nature to want to look out for the people who raised us.

Innovations in the financial technology space make managing money to support family and friends back home easy and instantaneous. For example, learning how to send money from the US to India using modern digital platforms allows transfer arrangements with just a few taps, delivering funds within minutes. This is a huge advance from the days of having to go to a physical location and complete lots of paperwork to arrange such transfers.

The support provided by such financial transactions is tangible proof of the support needed by loved ones to live in a foreign land. The ease with which such transactions are done these days makes a big difference to people’s lives. Providing financial support, be it in the form of occasional or regular transfers, to loved ones to help them deal with financial shocks and achieve their financial goals is, therefore, an important form of support for people in foreign lands.

Navigating Dual Identity and Belonging

Living in a new country while holding onto your heritage creates a complex cultural identity. You find yourself straddling two worlds. On one hand, you’re building a life, a career, and a community in your new environment. On the other hand, a part of your heart remains anchored to the customs, language, and people of your homeland.

How do you keep that delicate balance from tipping over?

Many immigrants, and also ‘temporary residents’, are part of local communities. To keep up their heritage, many of them also recreate, in their new homes, the rituals and traditions they used to celebrate in their countries of origin. To cook their traditional meals, for example, they use imported spices and celebrate their seasonal festivals as part of local regional associations. Speaking one’s native language at home is another way to keep up cultural traditions, and many people spend hours every day practicing their language skills online.

And finally, there’s the matter of passing down traditions to the next generation of diaspora-dwellers. Many of these children grow up in a culture that is different from their parents’. To this end, parents are involved in reintroducing their children to their heritage. For example, a Diaspora Indian may cook up a plate of their parents’ favorite curry and, alongside it, their children’s favorite dish (made using imported spices from back home, of course). Others participate in regional associations or go to festivals. And, of course, the mother tongue is generally spoken at home as well. So that, when they leave home, they can talk to their grandparents in their parents’ native language.

It takes work. Real work.

Building Virtual Communities

This sense of isolation could be alleviated if there were people of similar backgrounds in your new neighborhood or even in your new country. For those who have just moved, joining a community of people from your diaspora would be an ideal way to get used to your new life. These communities are known as community networks. They can be local or virtual, in the form of online groups or even social networking sites. These have already been the springboard for many diasporans who have joined various cultural associations in their local neighborhoods.

These are spaces where immigrants can form connections around other interests. Thus, immigrants can engage in discussions of cultural interest with people who are also members of local diaspora communities and, sometimes, physical neighborhoods. Online groups and local networks of immigrants or members of diaspora communities therefore become additional spaces of connection for newly arrived immigrants and long-time members of diaspora communities alike.

And that’s the point. We survive and thrive when we find each other.

Connecting and sustaining across oceans is a never-ending journey of love, intentional choice, and great versatility, as the Diaspora community defines and continues to redefine proximity and nearness to home as it makes its way through the earth.