First came the baby and toddler stages, gradually learning to think. Through primary and secondary school I was a studious, obedient kid who aced exams. Come university, I danced through a wonderful three years of undergrad, learning how to live alone and navigate the balance of work-hard, party-hard. 3 weeks after the Bachelor’s ended, the…
I joined a Vipassana meditation course without knowing what it was. My favourite cousin and wild spirit whom I deeply love once told me I had to do a Vipassana as it would change my life. So I unquestioningly signed up. Only then did I start reading up on it and realise what deep mud…
Time for some honest racial realizations from yours truly. Brown Privilege We all know about White Privilege. I am a person of colour, specifically of descent from the exoticised Indian peoples. Doesn’t sound too privileged does it? However, my skin colour lends a fair amount privilege to my life in Kenya. A simple example of…
In the post “Am I Kenyan or Indian?”, I described my identity search as a Kenyan of Indian heritage. In “Brown Privilege” I looked at the interactions between brown and black Kenyans, and how the fault for a lack of integration and harmony lies on both sides. Here’s another take on the identity crisis faced…
I had to go to India. Believe it or not, it was my first time – at the age of 25. I had to go; I had to go alone; and I had to go now. My entire life I have struggled with my ethnic identity, and with a lack of that feeling of belonging…
My dear subscribers, I finally managed to revamp the People in the Margins blog! This did mean a change of website address from peopleinthemargins.wordpress.com to peopleinthemargins.com. Your subscriptions have been migrated over to the new site. If you were a follower through WordPress and would like email notifications, you can do it through the new site.…
Trudging through foreign lands like a turtle with your life on your back; not knowing where you will sleep that night; crashing on random people’s couches and ending up as BFFs; volunteering on remote farms and gorging on fresh organic food; staying at the cheapest hostel in town and exploring secret alleys with fellow travellers; surviving on risky but tasty street food; bussing miles of the unknown alone – this is the life of a backpacker.