“I felt like I didn’t belong here”: Meghalaya woman takes to Instagram to share painful experience of racism in Delhi

It was meant to be an ordinary day in Delhi errands to run, a metro to catch, perhaps a few quiet moments between work and routine. But for a young woman from Meghalaya, it turned into a day that left her shaken, humiliated, and questioning her sense of belonging in her own country.

The woman, who goes by the username @__insolitude on Instagram, took to social media to share her experience of facing racial abuse twice in a single day in the heart of the national capital. Her calm but painful narration has since gone viral, prompting waves of outrage, empathy, and self-reflection across the country.

“I went to Kamla Nagar for some work,” she began, her voice trembling slightly in the video. “I was walking, and there was a bunch of grown-up men, three or four of them, sitting on their scooty. As I passed by, one man said, ‘Seng chong.’ The others laughed. I turned and looked at them and they kept laughing. My brain couldn’t process what just happened. I stayed quiet and walked to the shop.”

What seemed like a moment of casual mockery to the perpetrators became a memory etched with humiliation for her. She held back her anger and carried on, but the day had more cruelty in store.

A little later, while boarding the metro, another man hurled a racist slur at her — “Ching Chong China.” This time, she didn’t respond either. “That was the second time it happened in one day,” she said quietly. “I just stared at him and didn’t say a word.”

In her heartfelt post, she wrote about how the incident left her broken not just by the words, but by the realization that she was being made to feel like a stranger in her homeland, in her own country.

“I’ve been to different countries, but they never made me feel like I don’t belong there. But today, in my own country, fellow Indians made me feel like I don’t belong here,” she shared.

Her anguish deepened as she reflected on the irony of identity, being born Indian, yet being treated as foreign because of her features.

“My only mistake is that I’m born in India and I look like this. They make fun of me just because I don’t look like the rest.”

In her post’s caption, she addressed those who mocked her, “To the guys in Delhi who thought ‘Ching Chong China’ was a joke you didn’t just insult me. You insulted every person who’s ever felt ‘othered’ in their own country. India is diverse. Our faces, our languages, our cultures all valid. You don’t get to define who belongs and who doesn’t.”

Her words resonated deeply. The post, now viral, has become a rallying cry against racism, ignorance, and silent complicity.

She ended with a message of compassion, not revenge, “I cried today. Tomorrow it could be you, or it could be worse. Let it be a reminder racism thrives in silence. I will not be silent. I choose to end this racism with love, not revenge, because that’s what my parents taught me.”

The comments section of her post quickly flooded with support and condemnation of such behaviour.

“As a fellow Indian, I’m ashamed and disturbed by how common this blatant racism has become,” one user wrote.

Another remarked, “I’m deeply sorry you had to endure such discrimination in our nation’s capital. These stories prove that empathy is fading fast.”

A third voice captured the sentiment of many from the Northeast, “The racism we face in our own country is unmatched. Those who tell us to ignore it are the first to cry when they’re mocked abroad.”