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About Me — B. R. Shenoy
Stories, Travel, and Life Through My Lens
“It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.” — Paulo Coelho
I was born in India and left when I was three. I have no memory of that first departure, but in many ways, it set the tone for everything that followed.
My father was a public health dentist, and we went wherever we were needed. Later, my husband’s career as an executive for a multinational company meant even more moves across borders, time zones, and ways of life I hadn’t quite imagined. Because of that life, we rarely lived close to family. Friends became our anchor, the people who showed up at the door with food, who remembered birthdays, who sat with us through the hard things.
Language became a kind of thread connecting all those different lives. I grew up speaking English and an Indian dialect at home. Portuguese came to me in Brazil, the way languages do when you’re young and the world feels open. Spanish followed in school in the United States. Then French, in Paris, during the years I was an American expat trying to figure out a city that seemed entirely unbothered by my confusion. With Romance languages, the similarities trip you up from time to time.
