Fight for Freedom to Love or Happy Valentine’s Day from India

Happy Valentine’s Day from India! I am writing to you live from Mumbai –the maximum city. Today is Saturday 14^th February 2015. For me and my husband, it’s just another Saturday –we just finished our weekly household tasks and are ready to enjoy the weekend.

For the last few days, I have been overwhelmed with all the love-filled ads in TV, the big screened ads which are lining up the highway when I come back from office and of course all the special V-Day offers that come into my mail box. Most of the restaurants, hotels and bars are having a special set dinner for couples or even a Valentine’s Party set up for tonight.

For many of my friends in Europe, Valentine’s Day is just another day (like Christmas) used by the industry to make you buy gifts for each other and instead of YOU celebrating your love, businesses celebrate their spending customers.

My husband and I are also not so found of Valentine’s Day –in fact, we don’t care which day it is: If we feel like going out on a date with each other we simply do it –no matter whether it’s our wedding anniversary or an ordinary Wednesday evening after work.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2015

Tonight, we are going out –because it’s Valentine’s Day. But not because to celebrate our LOVE; it’s something equally important that we will celebrate tonight: FREEDOM. Freedom to love and freedom to express your love in public.

In the recent years, many moral policing attacks by right-wing Hindu nationalists made the headlines of Times Of India and other big Indian newspapers. Couples celebrating their love on Valentine’s Day with a special menu in a pub or restaurant have to fear physical abuse by the underground support of political parties like Shiv Sena and BJP.

This is the reason why Valentine’s Day is not just another day in India. It’s a day to stand up (and go out for a Valentine’s dinner) for the FREEDOM TO LOVE.

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PS: My tip to be safe during Valentine’s Day dinners: Go out for a meal in a fancy 5-star hotel or in a shopping mall. The moral policing mop usually targets smaller restaurants in individual set-ups.

PPS: And if you are in danger, the police asks all couples to file FIRs.

Welcome to the world of Gwenda Glocalista

This is part of my daily commute between Cuffe Parade and Andheri.

Hello and welcome to my blog,

this is Gwenda Glocalista live from Mumbai, India. Gwenda who? Glocalista = Global + Local. The world is my home; I lived in 3 different continents and traveled uncountable countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Last year in May, my husband and I relocated to Mumbai, India and though I feel home anywhere in the world this city made me realize how important it is to belong somewhere.

My passport is German, most of my documents like driver licence, degree certificate, marriage certificate, etc. (which are all used to prove your identity in an Indian bureaucratic system) are foreign -but I feel local. I am a Mumbaikar. This is where I belong, this is where I feel home.

I live in India since 2010, on and off I also lived in Germany and Singapore during those days but didn’t settle anywhere. German is my mother tongue but I feel more comfortable speaking English. In fact, I sometimes switch to a very local non-English-speaking Indian accent even while travelling abroad (not that I am proud of it though). When I see foreigners on the street, I sometimes stare at them as if they are from the moon. But if anyone stares at me, I get angry, annoyed and sad why they don’t recognize me as one of them, as part of the community, as a local, as part of the Indian society, as being Modern and Indian.

While reading this right now, you may not understand who I am. A German passport holder living in Mumbai probably equals to a typical expat in your mind. I am not. I am not here because of my job. My husband (who by the way is Indian, born in Jaipur and brought up in India/Singapore, which makes him kind of an NRI) and I decided that we want to live in Mumbai because of personal and professional goals and dreams. I am working a normal 9 to 5 job on a local package (that’s what an expat calls the normal salary by Indian standards). I am not flying back to Europe every 6 months (in fact it’s been almost 2 years that I’ve not been in Germany). We choose to live in Mumbai and make this city our home. And being at home in Mumbai means being a local. Belonging to this beautiful city that drives you crazy every single day!

I decided to start a blog about my life, about not being an expat in a place where the majority of people on the streets just recognize your skin color, about the beauty of living, loving and surviving Mumbai every day! This is what Gwenda Glocalista is all about.

There are tons of blogs on the internet and everyone tries to make their own as unique and engaging as possible -I am no different. I hope you enjoy what I will be sharing with you over the next weeks and months and I am looking forward to get to know more about you and what you would like to see on this blog: Do you have any specific topic that you were looking for and you can’t find anything written about it? Are you looking for answer to one of your questions about Mumbai? What do you want to see on this blog? Let me know in the comments below.

Bye-bye from Bombay,

Gwenda Glocalista