Intercultural Relationships
Gori Girl is about intercultural relationships in general, and my intercultural relationship in particular. It’s about handling the challenges that come from cultural differences and miscues. It’s also about celebrating the diversity that comes part and parcel with an intercultural relationship. It’s about figuring out why in the world your partner would dump Garam masala (a mixture of ground spices) into his perfectly good glass of Coke. (Answer: it sorta makes Coke taste more like ThumsUp, a delicious Indian soda. But still!)
Gori Girl was developed as a resource for people in intercultural relationships, particularly ones where one partner is South Asian. As a gori – aka white – girl with an Indian husband, I’ve waded through a lot of misinformation – or lack of information – in order to get good nuggets of advice for dealing with cultural differences and misunderstandings. The idea here is to pass those tips and tricks on to those of you in need, as well as point you towards other resources that might be of use.
India
Gori Girl is also about India, Indians, and occasionally Indiana (I kid, I kid… mostly). Marrying into an Indian family means receiving a crash course in Indian culture, religion, food, politics, and, of course, cricket. As an outsider, I tend to see these things a little differently from those who have been born and brought up in all things Sub-Continental.
If you’re interested in learning more about India, have social or business ties to Indians, or just really like Indian stuff (let’s hear it for lamb vindaloo!) , Gori Girl has something for you. Or if you’re Indian, and would like to see what a gori has to say about your peeps, read on.
Who is Gori Girl?
Gori Girl, (just Gori, please), is the author of this blog. Me. Pleased to meetcha! As you’ve likely gathered by now, I’m a white American woman married to an Indian – a Bengali, to be specific. I’m calling him Aditya in the blog posts, but all names here have been changed to protect the innocent. We’re currently located in the Washington D.C. metro area – he works for as a product manager for a tech firm, and I’m an analyst in energy markets. I also recently finished my master’s in economics, and am still crazy about the subject. This means that occasionally you’ll be hearing about economics from me (I can’t help myself), but only as it relates to India and intercultural relationships (immigration & the like).
I grew up in the very diverse area of Silicon Valley, California, and spent some time working in Germany before attending a liberal arts college in the Midwest, where I met Aditya. He’s an army brat, so he grew up all over India. Most of his family is still in India, although his older brother lives only a few miles away from my father’s house in California. Growing up in California meant that I always had an ethnically-mixed group of friends, mostly first or second-generation immigrants, so perhaps it’s no surprise that I ended up in an intercultural relationship.
A Note About Cultural Stereotypes
I hate ‘em. This blog was partially created because of a site where a few negative anecdotes of interactions with Indians were being used to stereotype the entire country. India is a large place, with a number of different religions, ethnicities, and languages. I’ve had significant contact with exactly one extended family from exactly one ethnicity with one particular religion, although I do know a fair number of South Asians. But, generally, I have my own experiences with intercultural relationships, and my Indian family, and they might be really, really different from yours. You should only use my advice or suggestions if it works for your particular situation. And if I write something that sounds like a cultural stereotype, call me on it. I’ve written more about stereotypes here, if you’re interested.
Comments Policy
You can find my complete comments policy here, but the key points are that I don’t like censorship, but I also don’t like extremely rude behavoir. If you wouldn’t say it to my face, don’t say it in the comments. If you aren’t saying something related to the topic being discussed, don’t post it – it will likely get deleted. And I work on the “three strikes & you’re out” system.
