3B

Magazine Editor:

Karl Williams

Deputy Editor:

Nabeel Chollampat

Design Editor:

Shane Achenbach

Photo Editor:

Zoey Holmstrom

Creative Director:

Emilie Farrugia

Editor in Chief:

Shoham Geva

Managing Editor:

 Laura Schinagle

Copy Editors:

Emily Campbell

Alexis Nowicki

Jose Rosales

THE statement

I’ve always been the silent type.
My mom once told me that she was in constant anxiety while she was preg-

nant with me because, unlike most fetuses, I didn’t move or kick. Things got so 
bad, she said, that she had tearfully gone to the doctor to find out if anything 
was wrong.

“Nothing was wrong,” she would then say. “It was just that you were too 

quiet, like you still are now.” I’d just stare at her whenever she said this, unable 
to think of an appropriate response.

Growing up, I had the same dilemma. In my preschool, while other people 

would play pretend games and tag during recess, I’d sit in a corner and play 
with sticks or little pieces of plastic I’d find.

My mom has still kept my preschool report card where, in between the rain-

bow stickers and purple smiley faces, my teachers commented, “While Tanya 
is doing well with recognizing colors and shading, she is very quiet and does 
not interact with other children.”

Scientists wanted to do tests on me to find out what was wrong, my mother 

still says, but I’m going to take that with a grain of salt.

I don’t want to say that I was a “precocious child,” because that really wasn’t 

the case. I never showed any signs of being exceedingly mature or intelligent 
for my age. In reality, I was just an extremely awkward person who had no idea 
what to say or do. I was painfully shy and hyperconscious about that fact.

This is something my family took a long time to understand.
The concepts of “nervous” and “shy” don’t exist among the kids in my family, 

and much of that has to do with the city that most of us grew up in. Living in 
Bombay breeds a sharp tongue and an acute sense of street smarts.

My parents, all my aunts and uncles and several of my cousins are products 

of Bombay’s upbringing. My five-year-old baby cousin, who currently resides 
in the city, has a biting vocabulary, speaks five different languages — English, 
Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Marwari — with a hostile intensity and looks 
like she’s always ready to pick a fistfight.

But somehow, the inheritance of this Bombay personality skipped me, 

despite having grown up there for the first six years of my life. So, instead of 
being brazen and self-assured like the rest of my family, I’m timid and self-
conscious.

Furthermore, Indians in India grow up in joint families — your grandpar-

ents, aunts, uncles and cousins all live with you under one roof. There’s no 
room to feel awkward and uncomfortable. Wanting to be left alone was never 
an option and often frowned upon.

As I’ve grown up, my introverted personality has taken the form of a seem-

ingly cold and aloof demeanor, especially with strangers, when really I’m still 
the same awkward and anxious preschool girl at recess — confused about who 
to play with, how to talk to people and what to say.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY EMILIE FARRUGIA

Donald Trump has been leading the polls for the Repub-
lican primaries for a while now—despite having made a 
number of controversial statements along the way. Here’s 

a list of some of the people who have his back.

THE LIST

SARAH PALIN
“He’s been going rogue left and right. That’s why he’s been doing 
so well. He’s been able to tear the veil off this idea of the system.”

MIKE DITKA 
“I think that he has the fire in his belly to make America great 
again and probably do it the right way. I do like him, yes. I do like 
him.”

HULK HOGAN
“This country needs to be shaken up. It needs to be shaken to its 
very core, and Donald Trump is doing that.”

MIKE TYSON
“He should be President of the United States. Let’s try something 
new. Let’s run America like a business, where no colors matter.”

TED NUGENT 
“Donald Trump is the hellraiser America has needed for a 
very long time. He and Ted Cruz may be the only hope to end 
the criminal jihad on America by our own corrupt punkass 
government.”

DENNIS RODMAN
“@realDonaldTrump has been a great friend for many years. We 
don’t need another politician, we need a businessman like Mr. 
Trump! Trump 2016”

BUZZFEED, BUT BET TER

PEOPLE WHO HAVE ENDORSED DONALD 

TRUMP—SO FAR

1 

3 

2

4 

5 

6

Wednesday, January 20, 2016 // The Statement 

B Y TA N YA M A D H A N I

My Cultural Currency: The Silent Type