Category: Culture
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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
Collected in The Smudged Hyphen (2026). 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…
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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…
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Happy Hauntings!
Over the years, Halloween is a holiday that has crept up on us. Pre-kids, Saathi and I gave out candy religiously and turned the lights out at about 8:00 PM. With the arrival of Ammu and Pattu, we gave in and got costumes for the kids and reveled in the pumpkin art they brought home…