What is multicultural literature? Who exactly is its audience?
When I first started writing Morāmbā in 2010, the term “multiculturalism” was straightforward to me. I was an Indian writer in the US, giving deeper insights into my culture via my story about middle-class values.
As I went about refining my book, the cultural landscape kept rapidly changing in America and India. Globalization truly got all our cultures a lot more unified. Desi kids have acculturated to the new standards while the adults have merely been bystanders.
My son growing up in the US is a product of this unified culture. Today, this 7-year-old kid finds comfort in mac and cheese and pizza over varan bhaat (rice & lentil curry*), English over Marathi, and Iron-Man stories over Hanuman (a Hindu demigod). Moreover, he can quickly strike a conversation with his cousins in India, who speak in flawless English about The Diary of A Wimpy Kid or Captain Underpants.
Be it the parents of first-generation Indian-Americans or desis raising their kids anywhere in the world or my peers raising their children in India, we are mourning the cultural loss and the widening generational gap between our children and us. In that sense, I can’t help but wonder if our children have become foreign to us. Not all change is unappreciated, but wouldn’t it be nice if our kids show interest in our past? We live in constant fear that they will grow to be a lot different from us. I wanted things to change, even if slightly.
Presenting/writing stories with the multicultural label is an ideal way to package stories that could be acceptable to our kids. It’s not only the outsiders seeking such stories but also our kids growing within their own defined culture.
I have written Morāmbā as a medium to bridge this gap and facilitate reading together. The book is set in the ‘90s that provides a background for adults to talk about their childhood. Your child may appreciate where you come from while being entertained with the central theme of child vs. adults that is evergreen. Discussions after every chapter bring out the relevance of current childhood issues and initiate new conversations.
*PS: but it’s not a curry!