2020-04-01 Reader\'s Digest AUNZ

READER’S DIGEST

More Than

Just a Passport

That wrenching feeling of signing

your nationality away

MY STORY

I

t wasa hotdayinMay 2010

whenI stoppedbeingan

Indian.Officially.Ithappened

ina mustylittleofficeofthe

immigrationandnaturalisation

authorityintheGermancitythat

hadcometobemyhome.

I wasearlyformy3pm

appointmentwiththeofficial

responsibleforEinbürgerung

(naturalisation).AsI waitedtogoin,

I feltweigheddownbytheenormity

ofwhatwasabouttohappen.

Ithadbeena longroadthathad

broughtmetothisdoor:a childhood

andyouthinIndia,through

universityanda 14-yearstayinthe

USandfinallytoa lifeof 25 years

inGermany.I’dbeenrootedand

uprootedseveraltimes,butthisis

whereI’dlivedthelongest– where

BY Rima Datta

I’d struggled to master a foreign

language; where I’d found work and

made new friends; where I’d brought

up my son, largely on my own; and

learnt to be truly independent.

Yet, in all those years, I’d hung on

to my Indian citizenship, ambivalent

about giving it up in spite of the

difficulties I faced because of it – the

inability to vote and the problems

with international travel being the

most important ones.

Now, approaching retirement, I

realised I’d like to spend more time

in India, where I also have a house,

family and friends. I was afraid,

though, that an absence of more

than six months could result in a loss

of my resident status in Germany,

which over the years had come to be

my home. Ambivalent though I was, ILLUSTRATION: PRIYA KURIYAN

12 april 2020