Samyuktha Krishna (who goes by Samy) is a talented illustrator who lives in Washington D.C. Originally from South India, Samy is passionate about celebrating one’s multicultural identity — even more so, given her own complex journey to self-acceptance.
Growing up in Delhi, Samy encountered plenty of resistance around her South Indian background. Surviving those challenging experiences has given her a strong sense of resilience, empathy for others and a love for unique differences of any kind.
Read about her journey below.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Growing Up
Tell us about your background.
I grew up in Delhi, located in North India. Ethnically, however, my parents are both Telugu and from South India. My mother grew up in Vizag (Andhra Pradesh) and my dad in Chennai (Tamil Nadu).
Although my family is Telugu, my dad is more familiar with the Tamil culture, language and customs, and less familiar with his Telugu heritage. That makes me from mixed cultures essentially, both the South and the North.
What was your experience like growing up?
When I was young, attending school in Delhi, it was especially hard.
In the North, there was a lot of ignorance around South Indian culture. People basically grouped those from the South as “Madrasi”. That’s a blanket term that places everyone from the South into a single group, when there are actually five different states in the South.
That hurt growing up. It sometimes made me reject the fact that I was South Indian. To try to fit and blend in, I would attempt to be more North Indian.
Can you share any memories that illustrate how that felt like for you?
When I was in first grade, my mom would make me wear the bindi dot (or “bottu” in Telugu) on the forehead. Young, unmarried girls in the North don’t wear that. In the South, as per Hindu customs, they do.
At home, my mom would try to explain that the tradition was part of our culture. But I didn’t like wearing it because everyone kept making fun of me.
By the time I was in third grade, I couldn’t take it anymore. Before I arrived at school, I would remove the bindi. After school, my mom would ask, “where is it?” quite a few times, and then finally, one day, she gave up.
In ninth grade, they shuffled up the kids in class. During that time, there were a lot of new admissions. It was a fresh start, where nobody knew my South Indian background. I grew more confident, vocal, and even participated more often in class.
One day, my language teacher came into class, and asked, “Where is that South Indian girl?” She needed to find out something related to my test paper. I stood up and immediately, I could sense there was a shift in the class.
Many of my classmates were surprised to find out that I was South Indian. Overnight, there was a big change in attitude and behavior towards me that was less friendly than before.
Cultural Identity
How did your perspectives about your cultural identity change over time?
When I started undergraduate, I met several classmates who were South Indian. Some of them grew up in the North, while others transferred from other places before moving to Delhi.
I saw how confident they were in their own skin, and how much they embraced their South Indian heritage. They openly talked about their ethnic backgrounds. They didn’t take themselves too seriously and were able to laugh at themselves.
They carried themselves with confidence and didn’t give anyone a reason to make fun of them because they were quite comfortable with who they were.
That opened my eyes and made me think, I don’t have to sacrifice that side of me to fit in. As I observed how they acted, I too began to accept and embrace my heritage.
How were you impacted by your move to the United States?
I was 23 when I first came to the United States. I applied to schools there around 2005, and then arrived in downtown San Francisco, California in 2006. While in SF, I did my Masters in 3D Character Animation.
I remember feeling amazed at how kind and friendly everyone was. In fact, it took me a while to open up. People would just randomly pass me on the streets, smile and say hello.
I’m glad that I started out in San Francisco because it helped me build up my confidence. People valued what I had to offer, in terms of my creativity and ideas in the art field. I’m grateful for that experience as it made me feel much better about myself and more comfortable in my own skin.
Of course, I did have a few experiences with some racism, but it wasn’t something that I couldn’t handle, having had similar experiences in the past.
Holidays, Traditions & Foods
Are there any cultural holidays or traditions that you celebrate?
Over the years, I think I’ve become less and less traditional in my mindset. But when I was younger, Diwali was one of my favorite holidays to celebrate.
For me, what I connect with most in terms of culture is through foods and how certain dishes relate to certain customs.
For example, a popular dish made during the Telugu New Year is a type of chutney called ugadi pachadi. The dish contains an ingredient called jaggery, which is an unrefined cane sugar that includes molasses.
It also has raw mango, tamarind, neem flower, salt and pepper. The bitterness of the dish represents sadness. Its saltiness represents fear. Its sweetness represents happiness.
Basically, each ingredient has a different taste and symbolizes a different emotion that we experience, and that we have to accept in life. On the health side, the concoction also cleanses and detoxes your body for that springtime month.
Do you have any other favorite Indian dishes?
I like simple, home-cooked, comfort foods.
My mom makes this amazing shrimp curry. I like to eat it with appam which is similar to a pancake, but shaped like a bowl. It’s made from fermented rice flour, yeast and coconut milk. She also makes korma, this delicious vegetable stew with coconut.
I know how to make all of these dishes because I have my mom’s cookbook. She wrote down quite a few recipes before I came to the U.S. in hopes that I wouldn’t go hungry!
Identity & Multiculturalism
If you could give a message to the younger version of yourself, what would you say?
I can’t tell my younger self to not care so much, because at that age, you do care and it does hurt when you’re singled out.
I would say, to understand that most people don’t come from a place of bad intent. Oftentimes, when kids are mean, they learned it from somewhere else, like their parents. They don’t even realize it until someone points it out to them.
For me, experiencing a lot of discrimination at a young age has helped me become more sensitive and receptive to people overall. I figured that other people who are different or who don’t fit the supposed norms of being or looking a certain way, also experience that feeling of hurt too.
That has given me a sense of compassion for others.
How do you think being multicultural manifests as a superpower for you?
I’m a lot more open to learning about other people’s differences and what makes them unique.
It’s an amazing thing to be different. Just imagine if everyone was the same as you – how boring! I could never understand how people could be intolerant of someone who’s different from them, when it’s so cool to see how other people live.
Ultimately, deep underneath, we’re all the same in what we need, what we desire and what we want to make of our lives. It’s my hope that people who don’t believe in that can someday recognize that too.
