Why "Forever on the Boat"?

In college campuses across America, people of South Asian origin are roughly divided into two groups – the FOBs (Fresh Off the Boats) and the ABCDs (American Born Confused Desis) - academically (and less interestingly) known as first and second-generation immigrants. “FOBs and ABCDs, the twain shall never meet”, an ABCD acquaintance of mine was kind enough to inform me one day. To a large extent, I noticed that to be true. But it’s not 1965 any more and the old immigration model – of leaving your home country for a new life in another, returning perhaps only for short visits – is no longer relevant.

For example, where did I fit in? Technically, having moved to the US only for college, I was “fresh off the boat” but my boat had started in Hong Kong, and not India. My boat actually has a much more complicated path. The route goes: India-Hong Kong-India-USA-India; making the answer to “where are you from” long enough to put the casual asker to sleep. The term “fresh off the boat” also implies that your “boat” has docked, moored for an immigrant eternity. But my boat has never docked for more than a couple of years at a time and I fully intend to get back on soon.

So although I’ve just gotten off the boat, “fresh off the boat” doesn’t really fit me. Neither does ABCD, for I am neither American born nor bred, although living in the US changed my life. But I certainly am I confused desi, unsure how to even hyphenate my own cultural and national identity. Hong Konger-Indian? Indian-HongKonger? RNRI? All of those sound as clunky as clogs so that’s how I settled on “Confused Desi – Forever on the Boat”.