The Map of My Life

I believe that our identity is just like a map. The map, with all its paths, places and landmarks sketched out on it, not just makes it useful in helping us navigate around, but also tells the story of the place, from how it was founded to how it has progressed over time. A story about how it was shaped by centuries of invasion, construction and a constant need for growth. The identity of a person, in a very similar fashion, shares with us a deeper insight into the incidents which shaped him, the values he stands for and the friendships or enmities that made him what he is today. Let me share with you my exploration of the map of my life.

The geographic location of a place gives us insight into the potential type of city it would eventually develop into. If it's a region rich in resources, it could be a mining or manufacturing heaven, or perhaps if it's located on a coast, tourism and trade could be the factors leading its development. I was born a Scorpio in the city of Nagpur in India. It is a mid-sized tier-2 city; not as big and diverse as the metropolitans, but still enough to give one plenty of exposure to different experiences in life, from workshops and competitions to music and culture. Being born in India gave me my first social and cultural identity: of being a person deeply rooted in heritage, having a frugal outlook towards life and of course, a spice tolerance more than the majority of the world's population. India taught me to be spiritual and religious, it made me a vegetarian and drove me towards a non-violent way of life. Nagpur and India for me are not just a literal geography, but also very much a metaphorical geography in the map of my life because they have played a vital role in defining the foundation of who I am and have inevitably been the first influence on the kind of person I am today.

Like the founders of any new town, my parents and the values they instilled in me become the first developments on my map. Be it the natural leadership I saw my mother exhibit in various religious organizations, which has now led me too to follow a similar path and hold posts of influence and responsibility at our local religious outfits in Nagpur, or the way my father, a shrewd businessman adept at handling money matters, made me imbibe a similar cautious approach towards money; they were the first seeds sown in my soil which today have grown into trees dictating the natural flora in my small but flourishing eighteen-year-old community.

As the small town grows and people start migrating to it, they also have quite a significant impact on the ever growing and changing identity of the place. For the map of a student like me, this without a doubt has been accomplished by the friends I made over the years in middle school and high school, and the teachers and mentors I was fortunate enough to be associated with over time. I have always been an avid reader and I still remember that one English teacher I got in eighth grade who saw the writings I did for my school assignments, recognized the flair of literature in me and motivated me to pursue writing in a more systematic way. Today, five years later, here I am having written two short novellas along with countless poems, articles and short stories. But as I look back, maybe if not for that teacher, writing may never have been such a big part of me as it is today. I have always been a connoisseur of music and enjoy playing the Indian percussion instrument Tabla, which I have been learning for eight years now. My go-to music has always been Hindi songs and songs recorded in the regional languages of India such as Gujarati and Marathi, but I had for as long as I can remember had this aversion towards listening to English songs. That is until I met this one girl and soon, I became a Swiftie. Maybe if not for her, I may never have discovered Taylor Swift, or at least wouldn't have done so at that time. But that is it, isn't it, the more we meet people, the more we start to get shaped by them.

Over the years, I have had the privilege of meeting a lot of wonderful people and with each interaction, my map has grown, adding more buildings, alleyways and amenities, comparable to people who moved into my life and who left, incidents which happened and the skills I have developed over the past couple of decades of my existence. And even though every lane, every road closure and every renovation has a story to tell, it will require more time and leisure to experience it all. But yes, if I were to try and define myself in limited words, like a zoomed-out map of a district: my academic standing of scoring consistently over 90% throughout middle and high school, of being someone who would seldom sit in classes and always be out with some competition or project as an excuse, of having held posts like School Captain or President of a social service youth outfit which went on to win accolades at district levels, of being someone who would go on to love interacting with his juniors in and out of school, and ultimately someone who is a food fanatic with a wish to try the many exciting cuisines the Indian palate has to offer, these are some of the many hats I have worn and am still wearing as the years have passed.

In this analogy of considering my life to be a map, it then ultimately makes me the cartographer, and like all cartographers get excited when they find new pieces of land to document and fascinate over the new adventures they would encounter in their journey, it makes me also excited as I begin this brand-new quest in the United States. So many new friends to make, professors to bond with, places to explore, cuisines to try and of course a completely new genre of music to tap my feet to!

I feel like how Vasco Da Gama might have felt when he first landed on Indian soil. Eager to explore this foreign land and marvelled by its exoticness. I think he might also have felt triumphed over his success after having made this excruciating and uncertain journey to reach India, which is exactly how I feel about the efforts I put in to come to the US, a year-long ordeal of applying to universities, arranging the finances, going through the visa process and so much more. But after reaching here, I would like to confess that I also feel a little scared, a little anxious, a little uncertain about how things will go ahead. After coming here, every aspect of my identity, a map I have so painstakingly drawn and proudly called my own as I spent years getting to know myself better, has been so easily challenged. The pride of being a vegetarian in India is challenged here by the fact that I always live in the mortal fear of whether my potato fries have been prepared in the same oil used to fry chicken and fish. My taste of Indian music or my beloved instrument Tabla not having as much recognition here. Me not getting an active Jain community to spend my time with like I used to in India, or the fact that I have to stay awake all night and risk my health just to talk for a few minutes with my old friends, the ones who shaped my very identity, now living seven seas away in a completely different continent with a different time zone.

Yes, it is scary, as it should be, but at the same time the cartographer in me is excited. It definitely won't be easy to erase the existing lines on my map as the old buildings are demolished and roads are all diverted to pave way for new ones. But at the same time, it is also enthralling to see what new development is in store. Maybe there are these exotic architecture styles just waiting to be explored in the form of new friends, new cultures, new cuisines, maybe a new love and new perspective on life, and I can't wait to grab the paper and the pen to sketch all these new developments out in the map of my life; the map of my identity, for what is identity if not an ever-changing notion of who we think we are.