Out of all the stories in "The Good Immigrant" edited by Nikesh Shukla, the one that stood out the most was "On Going Home" by Kieran Yates.
"It's been eight years since I've returned to Punjab... even my long, perfectly pointed acrylic nails give away my cushy life, devoid of manual labor... At home [London] ... I 've learned to navigate my identity in white spaces, in family spaces, in my own. But here, in this village, my specific adoption of Punjab through my own lens is scrutinized by my family and found lacking... My difference makes me strange back home in Britain - where people like me are made to feel outsiders - in India, reminding myself that I have a stake in two worlds is what makes me ... absorb the details that simultaneously empower and disempower me... I see coming back to my village as significant, thanks to my privilege of being able to leave... We fine tune the ability to find the nuances funny, deflecting the crushing weight of displacement... I learned quickly that there are certain jokes the white community can't ever really find funny because the punchline means wading through gaps of horror or sympathy... But for me there is no neat duality, no cleanly sliced elements of my identity that are in opposition... Seeing your own strangeness through different eyes, gives us a wholeness that allows us to see the world with humor, nuance and complexity... We've never really been split, never cut in half, we've just been silent about how we've been empowered because we haven't always felt it, have been too busy being good immigrants... and quieting down when people felt uncomfortable."
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