Kyana Emmot

In the last five years, Kyana Emmot has gone from knowing no Indians to living among them. The girl from California's all-white town of Lakeport had never met an Indian family "because there were none". "Although, Silicon Valley was close to my town, I had no exposure to Indian culture," she says. The make-up and hair artist now divides her time between Mumbai and Hyderabad, and sounds more local than any Bandraite. We notice that her American accent has picked up the singsong Mumbaiya tone, and she uses "aaram se" and "arre!" liberally.