I have noticed a curious trait about Indians living abroad – the sight of a fellow countrymen annoys them. It’s like what one Punjabi woman sincerely told me in England, “I didn’t escape to a foreign country only to be surrounded by more Indians.”

I’m 30 and in the final year of my PhD. The peculiarity of my life hit me when my seven-year-old niece asked me, “Aap bade ho ke kya banoge?”, a question all my relatives have been wanting to ask me.