Thoughts on a Generation’s Expectations: India vs. the U.S.
My husband I were in California in the last week of February. This was my first trip on a plane after my health scare in 2018 where I couldn’t walk[…]
Tagged: Family
‘Good Talk’ by Mira Jacob: Heartbreaking, Funny, Vulnerable, & Real
“We think our hearts break only from endings — the love gone, the rooms empty, the future unhappening as we stand ready to step into it — but what about[…]
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The Piping Hot Tea Of Culture
The words, “we have no culture” clink around in our empty glasses as my aunt’s eyes dart around the dinner table, looking for someone to agree with her. I sink[…]
Storyteller: Kalyani & The Voice From the Well
It was summer and Kalyani’s daughter, her son-in-law, and grandkids who had come from Bombay, were all stuffed into her humble abode in Palakkad, the little house almost bursting at[…]
The Wisdom Of Crazy
Balaram Pandey, Jairam Shastri, and Shivaram Chowby. My father bestowed these imperial names onto our three cats. My feline brothers. Prativadi Venkata loved them beyond the sensible, inter-species sense. My[…]
Our Histories Must Matter
On November 8, my great aunt passed away. She was born on a tea plantation in Sibsagar, Assam, on September 11, 1925, the eldest daughter of a successful industrialist and[…]
Yellow Roses To Greet Your Sweet Valentine
When my parents got married, almost sixty years ago, Valentine’s Day was a concept as foreign to them as the very notion of falling in love. I often referred to[…]
Growing Up Smith: An Immigrant Boy’s American Dream
Smith Bhatnagar comes of age in Growing Up Smith, a family-friendly film set in 1979 and opening today in select theaters. Played by newcomer Roni Akurati, Smith is an endearingly awkward 10-year-old[…]
Gold Dust: The Charm & Story Of The Heirloom
What a rarity it is, a material thing that is timeless. A piece that gets better with age, a piece that tells a story, a piece that can be passed[…]