"Where are you from?"

I never know what to say when asked this question. And I get asked it all the time. Like the other one - "What caste are you?" Or, "You are South Indian? How come you don't look like one?"

And in between irritation at being asked my 'caste' in this day and age and remorse at not being dressed in a langa-dhavni with mallige in my hair, I wonder how to answer the first one. Warangal. Vijayawada. Hyderabad. Secunderabad. Delhi. Chennai. Bangalore. Mumbai. Bahrain. Muscat. Seychelles. Dubai. So many places in between.

I am from some nebulous place, straddling five countries, where they make people a bit weird, a bit eccentric, a bit mad, a bit high-maintenace, a bit confused, a bit rude, a bit polite, very vague and highly moody. Don't even begin to look for it.