India as home

I'm at Oakland, California currently.
It was 5 in the evening and I was hungry. I thought I'll catch a bite at the Starbucks.
I went and there was one person in front of the counter ordering for himself.
I stood behind him.
As I was standing in the line, the coffee guy asked me what I wanted to have so that he could ready it up by the time I paid for it.
The guy in front of me turned back as I was telling the coffee guy, 'excuse me, I was standing ahead of you.' ... in a kind of 'what man..! how can you get your order before mine?'.
I explained to him with a shrug that thats how they do. They have 2-3 guys to make coffee but only one to bill. So, when the coffee-guys are free, they ask the people in the queue, what they want, before they place the order.
He felt re-assured. By his looks it seemed that he was African origin.
He collected his coffee and as he passed by, he asked if I was from India. I replied in the affirmative.
Then he said, 'I'm from India too'. I was perplexed. He couldn't be Indian..

I collected my coffee and went over to his place and introduced myself.
He introduced himself and told me that he stayed in Mumbai for 10 years. He studied school and college there. And MBA in Symbiosis, Pune. He was Sudanese by origin.
And he'd been in the US for 7 years.
But.. for him, India is his home, he said.. and he calls himself Indian.

He's not an Indian by birth. He's just stayed in India for sometime. He's stayed in US for long enuf to love it.
But he still identifies himself with India.

More on this blog to follow soon..