India has different states and why that matters

Quick geography lesson: India has 28 states in the same way the U.S. has 50. But there are key differences among each state, including culture and even language. While Hindi is widely spoken, not every person knows it, the way pretty much every person born in the U.S. speaks English.

If you happen to be dating an Indian person, you can bet their family speaks the language of their state such as Punjabi, Sindhi, etc. To put that into perspective, it would be like if people in Indiana spoke a different language and ate different food than people from Ohio. Although the U.S. is often referred to as a cultural melting pot, India is also one of the world's most diverse countries. And while most American families probably wouldn't care if you married someone from a different state, it's not uncommon for Indians to have a tremendous amount of pressure on them to marry someone whose family is from the same state in India.

In my case, my girlfriend is Gujarati, which is the language her family speaks. There actually is such a thing as Gujarati food, but it's really not that popular and she seldom eats it. While she does identify with being Indian first, being Gujarati is an extremely important part of her life.