India with Jessica | Navigating Indian Culture With Love

Hearing others' perspectives always brings out new perspectives. I interviewed two other women who are married to Indians who bring various cultural and linguistic background to their stories. Sheida is from Iran living in Canada. Parneet is French, living in Belgium. I asked the various questions to bring out these women's thoughts and experiences: 1) Things you enjoy about being married to an In...

Devika Cariapa is an award-winning children’s author who uses her background in history and archaeology to creatively communicate with a young audience. Her first book, India Through Archaeology: Excavating History (Tulika Books) encourages children to explore Indian history through the lens of archaeology. It was awarded the Hindu Young World-Goodbooks Award 2018 and the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sah...

What are the top five verbs you need to now in Hindi to start most simple conversations? Jessica breaks down the basic verbs to listen for in Hindi conversation and how these verbs can be used for beginners and intermediate speakers of Hindi.  This episode is a sneak preview of Jessica's upcoming Hindi course "Hindi Hacks You Didn't Know You Needed to Know." This course if different from othe...

Eliza Keyton (Eli Kutty) and Jessica Kumar are both language learners of Indian languages. In the years since learning Malayalam and Hindi, Eliza and Jessica have become increasingly convinced that there needs to be greater representation of Indians and proper credit given to those who have taught their indigenous languages to foreigners. In this episode, Eliza and Jessica talk through the challen...

Eliza Keyton (Eli Kutty) is an American Malayalam learner and dedicated to sharing her learnings with other learners. Jessica and Eliza dive into the complexities of learning Hindi vs Malayalam and the challenges of learning an Indian language. Jessica and Eliza both share their clear intentions of uplifting Desi voices and pointing the attention back to native speakers of their target languages....

2021 was the year where I (Jessica) hosted only South Asian guests! Hear 2-4 min blurbs from 8 of our best episodes with powerful, empathetic and informational interviews!  In this episode we highlight:  Episode 48 - The Carolina Desis - Rashmili Vemula and Gurtej Singh - language and how that fits into their identity as Indian Americans Episode 50  - Kunal Dutt- historian and activ...

Jessica takes a moment to reflect on some of the learnings about Indian culture she has observed in the last 15 years.  The most common questions she gets asked as a foreigner married to an Indian living in India: How do you celebrate festivals as a cross cultural couple? Is it safe to eat street food in India? How many languages have you learned? AND MORE... Two Ethical Businesses Supporting...

This is Part 2 of Jessica's conversation with Jesal Parikh, the co-host of the provocative podcast “ Yoga is Dead. ” She and her co-host Tejal Patel, highlight injustices of the digestion of yoga by modern Western culture. In this episode, Jessica and Jesal explore the process of historical Indian yoga and how that has morphed into a different animal in Western society. Jesal names names trends of...

Get ready to have your mind blown. Jesal Parikh is the co-host of the provocative podcast " Yoga is Dead. " She and her co-host Tejal Patel, highlight injustices of the digestion of yoga by modern Western culture. In this episode, Jessica and Jesal explore the process of historical Indian yoga and how that has morphed into a different animal in Western society. Jesal names names trends of the colo...

Should I share pictures of my life on social media even if I fear being judged by conservative relatives? What are the no-nos of social media in more conservative Indian families? If you are in a desi/non-desi relationship, maybe you have some of the same questions we do. How do you protect your relationship but also interact on social media with the ever watchful Indian aunties? Jessica shares he...

Kevin Wilson has formed his identity as fitting in the spaces between black and white binary spaces throughout his life. Best known as "The CEO of Chai" on social media, he goes by @crossculturechristian as an expression of someone who wants to invite people into a safe place on the harsh landscape of critical social media sites. People talk about the "vibe" of his tiktoks and reels, but he sees h...

The dissonance caused by learning a new culture and language can be one of the most disorienting things that humans can go through.    How can one respectfully and responsibly learn a new language without doing harm to those around them or losing themself in the process?    Join Jessica Kumar, Invisible India Podcast host and lifelong Hindi learner as she guides us through bein...

What does it take to successfully learn Hindi? Jessica breaks down tips and tricks and answers the most common questions about how to learn Hindi fluently. -What is unique about learning Hindi? -Why is it so hard to learn Indian languages from a book? -Is language school worth it? -Is it more important to focus on Hindi pronunciation or vocabulary? -Does age matter in learning a language? -How imp...

Are you in a relationship with an Indian? Overwhelmed by the differences between your culture and Indian culture? In Episode 59 of the Invisible India Podcast | Navigating Indian Culture with Love.... we dive in! As a veteran in India (15 years) and being married to Abhishek from Bihar for 11 years, Jessica shares 3 main tips for engaging with Indian culture and understanding the deep undercurrent...

"Maid in India" is a masterful work that not only uncovers some of the biggest challenges to India's informal labor sector, but some of the greatest opportunities it presents. Jessica rates it as one of the best books she has read on Indian culture as a whole, as it highlights the invisible aspects of hierarchy and classism through storytelling and hard data. Tripti Lahiri, Author, joins Jessica f...

"Maid in India" is a masterful work that not only uncovers some of the biggest challenges to India's informal labor sector, but some of the greatest opportunities it presents. Jessica rates it as one of the best books she has read on Indian culture as a whole, as it highlights the invisible aspects of hierarchy and classism through storytelling and hard data. Tripti Lahiri, Author, joins Jessica f...

Jessica hosts Anita Sachariah to share on tidbits of how to teach Indian origin children heritage languages like Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Urdu, Tamil, Punjabi and many more.   Jessica and Anita speak about their experiences teaching their own children and creating resources for children and adults to bridge the gap in learning Indian languages wherever learners are in...

Vaishali Patel is passionate about passing on the Gujarati and Hindi languages and cultures to others! Hear her story of how she immigrated to the US and started teaching others Gujarati.  Her company, Sanskar Teaching, includes a number of programs both online, live classes and products to bring students closer to Gujarati, Hindi and Punjabi languages.    __________________________...

Enjoy this conversation lesson including Hindi words with English explanation.  The lesson is 10 minutes, including simple instructional vocabulary and vocabulary about fruits (mango, lichi and banana.)  Learn more about Indian culture from Jessica's perspective (an American living in India since 2006.) She shares her learnings about cultural significance of different fruits, where they...

Rashmi Chadha is an entrepreneur, travel influencer and international speaker. Despite her ever smiling persona, there is depth and pain in her story. Overcoming sexism at many junctures, the tragic loss of her mother and obstacles from society, she continues to push forward to make the world a better place for women. She is the founder of wovoyage, a travel company making women’s travel experienc...

What is really happening in India right now with the COVID Crisis?   Jessica, an American living in India with her family tells a first hand account of what it feels like to be in the midst of India's huge COVID crisis. How did we get here and what was the progression like from lockdown #1 in 2020 to a life of normalcy in late 2020, to complete chaos now in April 2021.    What does...

Patna, Bihar’s historical sites are in danger. Kunal Dutt shares about the top 5 historic sites in Patna, the capital of Bihar, India. Kunal founded the Save Historic Patna Collectorate campaign to raise awareness of how Patnaites are allowing their history to be cannibalized in the name of becoming a “smart city.”  He shares the tragic story of losing several iconic pieces of history and wha...

In Jessica's 15 years in India, there have been countless interesting and exciting moments.    Here in our 50th EPISODE she reflects on 2 dumb newbie mistakes, 1 religious experience, 1 natural disaster and 1 wild animal story.    Hear about the crazy, dumb mistakes that Jessica made as a young intern in India and the other wild experiences that come with living off the beaten...

Is COVID really worse in American than India?   What did it feel like on the ground in India during the world's biggest lockdown.   Why on earth would anyone travel between the US and India right now?    Listen to Jessica and Abhishek share about their experience traveling from Bihar, India to Chicago and BACK AGAIN in the middle of a pandemic! Why did they go? What were their...

The standard for Indian-Americans is seemingly impossibly high wherever they go. Not fully accepted as "American" nor fully embraced as "fully Indian."  Rashmili Vemula and Gurtej Singh join Jessica in a conversation about assimilation, cultural retention and language learning as Indian-Americans. Rashmili talks through her Telegu roots and how dance was a connection point to Indian culture....