In 'Citizen By Descent', Kritika Arya Maps The Architecture Of Third Culture Anxieties

When Kritika Arya sat down to write what she thought would be a single, self-contained essay, she didn’t anticipate it would spiral into a book.

"I wrote a standalone piece in 2020 about my mind feeling like a toxic bubble I inhabited," she recalls. "It was inspired by a therapy session, and I excitedly jotted down every detail about this consuming space. The original plan was to create an illustrated zine — but my mind had other plans."

That piece — rooted in the metaphorical architecture of the mind — soon opened the door to literal spaces, physical homes she had lived in over the years, each carrying its own emotional residue. 'Citizen by Descent', Kritika Arya’s debut essay collection, was born from this act of mental mapping. It is an excavation of memory, mental health, and the layered experiences of growing up across borders.

"Escaping the vulnerability was never an option," Arya says. "But recognising the core themes early on proved crucial." As she continued to write, she saw patterns emerge: home, identity, belonging, and the impact of being a 'Third Culture Kid'. "Very early on, I realised that I wanted to explore the themes of home and mental health," Arya says. "Everything else naturally fell into place."

Third Culture Kids — those who spend their formative years in cultures different from their parents’ country of origin — often experience a profound sense of displacement. They grow up straddling languages, customs, social and cultural expectations, but often belong fully to none. This tension can give rise to a specific kind of unease now recognised as third culture anxiety: a psychological disorientation caused by constant movement and cultural code-switching. Citizen by Descent offers tender, lived insights into this condition.

"To write these stories, I confined each one to a specific space," Arya explains. "Each essay works on three interconnected levels: the physical, the intellectual, and the emotional." Her memories — 'slightly skewed', as she puts it — were cross-checked against old photographs and conversations with her sister Ritu, who also illustrated and designed the book. "She was a true collaborator who went above and beyond," Arya says. "We created, shared, and grew together."

Her writing process was not only deliberate, but therapeutic. "Writing was therapeutic, exciting, difficult; yet it gave me purpose," she says. "While drafting, therapy was crucial in accessing these memories and processing them in a supported environment."

That sense of vulnerability in Citizen by Descent — its exploration of grief, growth, anxiety, and identity — resonated deeply with early readers, especially other Third Culture Kids and diaspores. "I truly feel like I won the lottery creating this book," Arya says, reflecting on the collaboration with 16 artists and contributors from across the world who contributed to the collection, making it more akin to an anthology. "I received responses from diasporic readers from the very first draft, as the illustrators were often the first to read it."

Their enthusiastic reactions became sort of a sounding board. "They would agree to be a part of the project, which was a welcomed outcome," Arya says. "Their visceral and visual response to my writing fuelled my confidence to keep going."

The impact of the book has been deeply personal and surprisingly wide-ranging. "Everyone has been so kind; it’s still surreal when people quote me," she says. "Readers have told me they felt seen — and that they saw me for the first time."

One of the most powerful responses came from the older generation. "A particularly touching experience came from my father’s close friends, all in their 70s. They read my book and some told me that their view on mental health has shifted, leading them to look at their children more empathetically."

Arya didn’t set out to write a definitive statement about the third culture experience, but her work has become exactly that.

"I realised that it doesn’t matter where you are from, your age, or your passport, because we’re all searching for the same thing: a sense of belonging," she says.

Citizen by Descent is not just a book about spaces or feelings — it’s about connection. It articulates what often goes unspoken in diaspora: that displacement isn’t always dramatic or visible; sometimes, it’s quiet, quotidian, and domestic — a ghost in your bedroom mirror or a memory buried under childhood toys.

"I never set out to write about the third culture experience," Arya reflects. "But I now realise that’s exactly why it’s important. Because it’s having a pleasantly unexpected impact and represents the underrepresented."

Kritika Arya's 'Citizen By Descent' is available here.

Follow Kritika Arya here.

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