“Where are you from?” In a simple world, I would answer that I’m from Canada. If I gave that answer, I would look like a fool, though, because I know what the other person is really asking. They are asking for your ethnicity or culture. The expected answer from me would be, “I am Indian, but I was born in Canada.”

I have had this conversation more than a thousand times, but recently, I realized how inherently isolating the underlying presumptions are in these conversations.