Category: Culture
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Love Chaos Kin – Teaser 2
Wonder what adoption related conversations are like when kids are little?
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Love Chaos Kin – Trailer
Here’s a peek into what the film offers. Love Chaos Kin
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Essay: Arranged Marriage
This essay appeared in Centered: The magazine of personal stories in 2019. It is an excerpt from my work in progress memoir. Standing in the living room where I rented a room in Jeevan Bima Nagar in Bangalore, I tried to process what was happening. My father declared, “We are coming this weekend.” What is the hurry? I wanted…
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Crossing Cultures
“How do you open this thing?” Laddu’s cry is plaintive as she wrestles with a miniature Hawkins pressure cooker. I show her how to open and close the cooker. Ammu pipes up “Did you have one growing up?” “Never!” I say. My ferocity surprises me though it shouldn’t. I try to explain to her how…
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Pontificating On Spirituality
It is a blustery morning. I am bundled up as I head for my morning walk. I am glad for the warm wool scarf around my neck that also obscures the wires from the earphone snaking to my pocket. This morning, I choose to start with Venkateshwara Suprabatham. M.S. Subbulakshmi crooning into my ears is…
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A Big Fat Multicultural Cauldron
I am on my way back home, slowing to a stop before a turn when the flash of blue startles me. The bird is tiny, a violent blue against the sea of dull greens, browns, and yellows that greet me these days. I track the bird as it disappears into a tree and makes my…
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Human After All
I feel connected, my arms waving with the music, my voice joining in with the chorus of voices that emanates, amplifies and fills the theater. I was at a rehearsal at the Lincoln theater where the Harmony Project choir was preparing for their December finale. I watched David Brown orchestrate a beautiful crowd of people…
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The Birth Of A Baby: the Parent Voice,
Today, our labor of love the Parent Voice, is born. It has taken hours stolen from chores, children and the husband to bring this to fruition. It has taken the effort of many of us to create content, lay it out, tinker with it and spend anxious hours fussing about it. We have counted…
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Letters To My Daughters: On Religion, Faith, Culture and Rituals
Dear Ammu, Pattu, and Laddu, Today is Karadaiyan nonbu, a festival dedicated to a woman in Hindu mythology for defying death and saving her husband’s life. As a mother and wife, I probably view this tale differently. Growing up though, all I remember are the yummy adais that my Amma would make and the thin…
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Recreating Traditions – Deepavali 2016
It is dusk, the light giving way to the dark as the shadows lengthen in my family room. Laddu is on my lap. I want to lie down and sleep but I am sitting ramrod straight, keeping a wary eye for gurgling noises before she throws up. Ammu and Pattu sit in matching pista green…