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Home away from home: Udemy co-founder Biyani hails USA for acceptance
Gagan Biyani noted that the USA has moved on from the cartoonization of Indians through Simpson's Apu and has started finding curiosity and acceptance.
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Wed, 22, Oct 2025
- 03:01 EDT
- 25
Gagan Biyani / Gagan Biyani via X
The United States of America has witnessed a wave of anti-immigration and anti-India sentiments in the recent past, with critics lining up to highlight the fault-line between the two countries. However, Udemy co-founder Gagan Biyani dismissed the issues and argued that no country accepts Indians the way the USA does.
Biyani, in his now viral X post, narrated a tale of the innocent curiosity of a 4-year-old that has the power to melt away any iciness that exists within America.
He shared that the Biyani family was recently in Denver, meeting Gagan Biyani's brother, when an unexpected guest was eager to crash the celebration. A 4-year-old girl, a neighbourhood kid, was begging to join their Diwali festivities. The child was curious about the celebrations and was keen on gaining some first-hand experience.
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The child had her first experience of the festival during last year's Diwali when the host family had gone the extra mile and organized a special post-Diwali mini celebration, just for that girl. They performed an "abbreviated pooja", cooked Indian food and decorated the little girl's house with diyas. Even though the child, with a 3-year-old's innocence, refused to taste the food, she did get a taste of Diwali, and, this year, she was back for more.
Biyani summed up the experience on X and noted, "Given we're in Denver, she's white and has very few Indian friends so normally this would be quite a shock. When I was young, I lived in a suburb with 20% Indians and still nobody ever asked me about Diwali."
He further highlighted how America viewed India during his childhood and said, "That was still the era when Indian Americans were most associated with Apu, the convenience store owner from the Simpsons."
Biyani noted that, over the years, Indians and Indian culture have found more and more curiosity and acceptance in America. He contrasted this with popular opinions about America and remarked, "We constantly hear about how divisive America is. But I've traveled nearly everywhere - 60+ countries, often solo, including 15 times to India. America has its problems and it sucks to see the recent backsliding but the big picture is very clear to me."
Describing the big picture of acceptance, he said, "No place feels like home to me like the US of A. No place outside of India accepts my people the way America does."
Biyani's post about the little girl's curiosity and the growing acceptance that Indians receive in the USA has diaspora community members from different parts of the world claiming that they have also received similar love and acceptance in the countries they live in. Voices from Canada, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom, among many others, painted a picture of global love and acceptance that is growing with time.
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