The boy who cheated death — My maternal grandfather, Raja, grew up under British rule, spoke British English, and had a dignified, gentlemanly air. He called his daily walk his “morning constitutional.” And when he disagreed with a score I got on a college essay, he pressed me to talk to the professor, saying “You must…

The captivating life of my Indian grandmother — My grandmother — my ammamma — was a child bride. Long before it was recognized as a human rights violation or trafficking or violence against girls, it was simply the way of the old world. The old world of rural India under British rule. Before she became my ammamma, she…

Left or right, please and thank you — I‘m terrible with directions. Can’t find my way out of the proverbial paper bag. Legend has it I’m in there still. A while back, there was an image making the rounds on the internet where Americans were asked to point to Ukraine on a map and botched it. Many guessed…

Red, white, and blue…with a touch of orange and green — When I first came to America, Norman Rockwell’s art was the gold standard in my eyes of what it meant to be American. He painted scenes that seemed to belong uniquely to the stars and stripes. I swooned at these apple pie slices of Americana. Rockwell made me pine for…

Hold space for those fighting for rights on multiple fronts — As an immigrant woman of Indian descent (born in India and raised in the U.S.), I cannot strip myself of my womanhood, ethnicity, or immigrant status to focus on the struggles of any one of those groups over the others. I exist at the intersection of collectives that are forever…

Need story ideas? Pay attention — class is in session — A while ago, I was chatting with a client about how I needed to make more time to learn new things. I waxed nostalgic about missing university lecture halls, the intellectual exchange of scholarly ideas, and exploring the depth and breadth of each others’ minds. [Never mind that I spent…

A secret that changed the trajectory of our lives — When I was a toddler in India, my maternal aunt, who had been the first to make it to America, came back for a visit. We all gathered at my grandfather’s house, excitedly awaiting her arrival and eager to hear news about life in the States. Would she be clad…

How Women Move Through the World — A while ago, my husband had car trouble late one evening. He was on the shoulder with his hazards on, and at least three times, cars pulled over with men offering to help. He remarked on the kindness of these men and how he felt relief when they took the…

Creating a workout space counts as a workout — I still blame my last few pounds on the Covid lockdown. Being such an “unprecedented” area of the law, there’s no statute of limitations on Covid excuses. I’m riding that bad boy as long as I can. Somewhere in the midst of it all, I did head downstairs to get…