Belfiore, in Italian, means beautiful flowers say Viggy and Manjula Mokkarala referring to their wine label in the We Belong interview. The Mokkarala family grow Pinot Noir grapes in their backyard home vineyard in Los Altos Hills but do not sell their wine, gifting it to friends and family instead.
We Belong is a visual series highlighting different experiences of South Asian and Indian identity. This series was produced by India Currents in collaboration with CatchLight as part of the CatchLight Local CA Visual Desk. Photographs and interviews by CatchLight Fellow Sree Sripathy.
Where were you born and raised?
Viggy: “I was born and raised in Hyderabad, India. I went to college at BITS (Birla Institute of Technology and Science), Pilani, which is over 1000 miles away from home, a five-year engineering program. And after, I came to the U.S. and got a Master’s in Computer Sciences from the University of Wisconsin. After that, I moved to the Bay Area.
Manjula: “I was born in a very small town in Andhra Pradesh called Simhachalam and I did my education, most of it, in Vishakhapatnam.”
How did you both meet?
Manjula: “I was only 20. A lot of my friends around me were getting married. So it was like, it’s time to get married, and I wanted to work. I wanted to go do my master’s actually in nutrition and dietetics. But I met Viggy. I got married, and came here to California, and did my Master’s in dietetics from San Jose State University.”
Did you have an arranged marriage or a love marriage?
Manjula: “It’s an arranged marriage. My sixth-grade teacher is related to Viggy’s uncle. She connected the two families. And then we met each other and over a period of two, three days, we said, it seems like the gut feel is right, and we like each other from what we know about each other.”
How did you connect to Indian culture at a new home, in a new country?
Manjula: “It was scary, but at the same time, exciting. I was looking forward to a new life, a different life. I brought things that are Indian: stainless steel plates that we eat in, and cups, metal cups that we drink in, you want to bring your Indianism into wherever you go.”
How did you feel once you came to the U.S.? Did you fit in right away or was it difficult to blend in?
Viggy: “See, we were very Indian at heart then and even now. One of the big advantages that college-educated Indians have is the language. I would dare say that my English is, was, and continues to be better than most people around me. We would watch American movies in India. So we were even up on so-called American slang. We read books, we read novels, which are set here in the U.S.”
How do you maintain your connection to India while living in the U.S.?
Viggy: “When I first came here, calling India had to be through an operator. You could not dial direct. You had to call an operator and say, ‘Operator, connect me to India.’ And it was $14 for three minutes. On a graduate assistant’s compensation, that was a luxury we could ill afford. So we would call out once a month or once a week, do some speed talking for two minutes, 59 seconds, and say ‘bye bye’. Today, WhatsApp calling is virtually free. And you can do FaceTime and all that stuff.”
Manjula: “You have parents [or] siblings back in India, you keep in touch with them. And you keep in touch with India through that, basically. And [you celebrate] festivals. Whether you’re really religious or not, they’re kind of a tradition, and your family celebrates a particular festival in a particular way. So that keeps you in touch with India too.”
How did you get into wine and winemaking?
Manjula: “We love wine. And we like growing things, producing stuff. So we thought that’d be a good combination of things. And it’ll be a good landscape.”
Viggy: “We had always said someday we’ll plant a vineyard. And in 2010, one of our friends did. And so we got the same workers to come and you know, do a small vineyard on our property.”
What is your favorite varietal of wine?
Viggy: “Pinot Noir. Burgundy is without a question, for both of us.”
Manjula: “It’s light on your tongue, so you can feel the nuances. It doesn’t overwhelm your taste buds. Each sip you take could be different. The notes are very different. We like to sip our wine with a little bit of cheese and crackers. So a lighter-bodied wine works well with that.”
How did you come up with the name Belfiore as the label for your wine?
Viggy: “Belfiore, in Italian, means beautiful flowers. And when we moved to this house, the landscaping was non-existent and Manjula slowly converted that to the very nice landscaping you’ve seen. Growing flowers here is tough because of the deer. But she has figured out flowers that the deer generally leave alone. And so the kids basically called the house Casa Belfiore, House of Beautiful Flowers.”
Is the way that you feel Indian now the same as it was when you first left India?
Viggy: “I’ve traveled to dozens of countries. Very quickly, I realized that the diversity of India is unmatched. So many languages, so many religions, so many local customs and practices. And yet the country is just held very tightly together. So those kinds of things you look at and you admire more and more as you travel around the world.”
Manjula: “I was 20 years old when I came here. I’m 57 years old now. So you’ve grown, mentally and emotionally also. You’ve gotten used to the ways of living here, and in dealing with people.”
A call for portrait volunteers was promoted in the India Currents newsletter and on social media for this series. Do you have a story to share? We’d love to hear from you! Fill out the Portrait/Story Submission Form and we will contact you.
This series was produced by India Currents in collaboration with CatchLight as part of the CatchLight Local CA Visual Desk. Contributors include Vandana Kumar, Meera Kymal, Mabel Jimenez, and Jenny Jacklin-Stratton. Learn more about CatchLight Local’s collaborative model for local visual journalism at https://www.catchlight.io/local
This series was made possible in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to CA vs Hate.