What Indian language does my boss speak?
The Indian & Pakistani people I’ve known have all been quite open in sharing their heritage when I’ve asked them directly. Try this: Go to an encyclopedia and look up India, and get a basic idea of the country. When there are not a lot of people around, say honestly how you’ve become curious about India, and where does his family come from? If you demonstrate true curiosity, and enthusiasm about his answer, I’m sure it will start a dialog. Don’t press for lots of details on the first conversation. Look up the region he’s from, and at a later conversation say you looked up his region and you have a question about…. He’ll see you have continuing interest, and will open up a little more. The trick in getting people from anywhere to talk about it is to show that you have an open mind, and curiosity. I know it’s hard to ask the first time, but it gets easier once you’ve explored heritage with a few people.