October 8, 2016 was the day I returned to India
after spending two years in the UK. To be fair, I had visited India frequently
even while I was at Oxford. However, the experiences of seasonal visitors and
residents are very different. While I was gone, things had changed in India –
for better or for worse – and I returned to a country that seemed far more
divided than the one I remembered.
While the UK provided a very nourishing
environment for me and helped me grow in many ways, the feeling of being ‘othered’
constantly bothered me. The colour of my skin had never occupied such
centre-stage in my life before. Therefore, even as I made friends from
different countries and learnt new skills or life-lessons, there was a yearning
to go back home. Funnily, the place where I chose to return was Bangalore. The
city is, at the surface, just like the cities I grew up in; and while the
feeling of being ‘othered’ reduced substantially, it didn’t quite disappear. I
under-estimated language as a factor that divides individuals. However, I share
with Bangaloreans the underlying values that I have come to embody. Therefore,
the relationships I have formed here have been much deeper than the ones I
formed in Oxford.
The highlight of coming back has been the
re-engagement with my friends. While I would meet them even when I was visiting
from Oxford, I can now meet them for more than a few hours a year. Not only do
I meet my friends more frequently, I get to spend a lot more quality time with
them. Friends have visited and stayed over at my little place in Bangalore,
some friends live in Bangalore and others have been co-travellers. I had feared
that I will miss out on the weddings of many of my friends. But as the marriage
engine cranks up, I have enjoyed sharing with my friends their lives’ special
moments!
On the work front, I found myself in the middle
of a maelstrom. As part of the Digital Identity team at Omidyar Network, I was
working on Aadhaar-related issues. This was a topic that soon emerged as a
polarising one with very little space for neutrality. In this situation, trying
to be a voice of reason has been personally very exhausting. Yet, I feel that
we’ve started making a difference. The State of Aadhaar Report and Digital Identity Research Initiative that we’ve funded will hopefully fill a vacuum of
data that exists in this debate. Personally, it has been a steep learning
curve, which has allowed me to have a well-informed discussion on this topic.
Therefore, as I look back at the year that I’ve
been in India, it has passed by very quickly. Working on an issue that is central
to the country’s future has been a highlight. It has motivated me to work
harder, late at nights, over weekends and even while waiting in hospitals! I
also realised that work doesn’t feel like work when you’re working on something
that excites you.
My journey to Oxford started with me saying in
my Rhodes interview that helping people is not something that I see as a
distinct task, but a part of everyday life. Relatedly, while coming back to
India wasn’t motivated solely by a burning desire to make a change in the
country, I’ve been fortunate to get that opportunity and have tried to run with
it.
