One thing I intensely dislike about the Indian student community living in the United States is how they only mingle amongst themselves and nobody else, and even amongst them, they have cliques: a Tamil person will only hangout with a Tamil person, a Telugu person will only hang out with a Telugu person, and the cherry on top of this cake is the fact that us dear Indians also carry caste discrimination with them to the United States, I'm sure you've all read news about two groups clashing due to some asinine reasons a few months ago. 

I just have one thing to ask you: if you're going abroad to study in a multi-cultural university, why on Earth would you waste the opportunity to connect with people from different nations? Why must you always want to hang out with your Indian friends at all time, creating echo chambers and wasting the point of actually living in the US where you are exposed to many more cultures that can often change some deep rooted opinions, both negative and positive? We must always be open to ideas!

Now, if you're convinced that you want to make friends apart from your own little circle, the obvious question of how will hit you like a brick wall. Don't worry, I'm here for that.

1. Respect boundaries: 

To learn how to make friends, we must first learn to forget a few very annoying habits us Indians have. Coming from a country of 1.4 billion has its side effects, like how nobody understands the concept of privacy and more often than not, people go out of their way to poke their noses in places where they don't belong. Gossip is King, after all. 

Yeah, stop doing that. Respect the other person's boundaries before you start making friends from cultures or countries different that your own. 

2. Find things you love doing and join clubs: 

Sounds funny, but once you understand and respect boundaries, it will be easier for you to have the confidence in joining clubs on campus for your specific hobby. For example, I'm in the book club, the gaming club, metal music club, and a few others, and I've made plenty of friends amongst the other international as well as American students doing that. 

3. Take help from someone who you already know:  

This is not exactly necessary, but having someone you know in the group you want to socialise in will give you a major boost in making new friends. Maybe the person you know is from your class, maybe you see them often and are on speaking terms with them. Use that to your advantage. 

4. Attend random meet-ups:  

These are incredibly fun and you get to meet amazing people throughout. There are apps int he market that arrange for random meet ups on the campus where you can meet fellow students or staff, sometimes both, and just hang out, talking, socialising and discussing anything.

If you're kind of shy, and would like to avoid random meet ups, just go to the cafe and strike up a conversation. It really is that simple. 

5. Be yourself:  

All of the above tips are useless if you're not yourself with the people you meet. Remember, you're not trying to be someone you're not, you're just looking for friends that will accept you for who you are and hang out with you. You'll be doing yourself a great disservice by not being honest and upfront with your newly made friends, so why take the pains of pretending you're someone you're not when you can be yourself and still make friends. Just let Chris Cornell (may his soul rest in peace) tell you the same.