US Presidential Elections 2020: Why I Did The Most Important Thing As An American And New Yorker

In 1991, ten years after I came to the US as a student, I made the decision to live in that country. And if my life was going to be in the US, I had to vote in local and national elections. And so, I became a US citizen, which meant I had to give up my Indian citizenship. But I never stopped being an Indian. Mera dil to phir bhi Hindustani tha. I just assumed a hyphenated identity and became an Indian American.

Early September I flew to the US in the middle of the pandemic to apply for the Overseas Citizen of India status or the OCI card, which gives me nearly all rights as an Indian citizen. But I cannot vote in Indian elections. Twenty-nine years after I became a US citizen, family reasons had made me realise that I needed to spend more time in India.

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