What is more human?

Thinking or Feeling

Last Saturday I did something very ordinary for a very long time. Something that 7 million years ago was not so ordinary and began distinguishing humans from animals, and thus thought from feeling. Something that made me tired as fuck.

On Autonomy

and the 8-month journey to reach this damn stage

Have you ever moved to a new country for an extended period of time? If so, you’ve likely seen this graph. It’s the 5 Stages of Culture Shock framework that many expats experience when moving to a new…

Being Indian-American

And what that tiny af hyphen means

I’ve published mini-versions of this post for myself over several years, but every time I write anything with “Indian-American” in the title, I find that my feelings have changed dramatically 6 months later…

What is a strong woman?

I found the answer in a Delhi slum

This post is dedicated to my parents, who amongst starting lives in a new country, taught me my root culture and the language of Hindi, without which it would have been nearly impossible to make my new…

Homelessness — US vs. Europe

I had an experience with a homeless person this week in Berlin that has largely confused me.

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In the freezing cold and around 6pm (already dark), I shuffled past a new part of town to run some errands. I noticed a man…

Welcome

Welcome to my blog, called Sonders. Sonder is my favorite word, and if you haven’t heard it before, this is what it means:

Saying Goodbye 🌊

The lesson that helps me leave people, places, and things

Take That Spanish Class in School, Kids!

7 Lessons Spanish Taught Me in Europe

For 8 years in school, I dreaded Spanish class. Everyday you’d walk in and memorize genders for inanimate objects, calculate 2 forms of the same concept of “you,” and…