Category: Parenting
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The Last Bit I Walk Alone
The alarm goes off at five forty-five. Maggi in a thermos, a transition reel, photos by the tree, and the last bit of the walk home alone.
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A Girl Can Dream
Felix stood on his hind paws, his snout sniffing the air, his forepaws resting next to my bowl of tamarind water. I was overcome with love for this being. It’s taken over a year for this fellow to worm his way into my heart. I agreed to bring him home because my youngest begged me…
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My QA Department Works for Boba
I built my three children a game for the summer. Then their friends’ parents started asking for it.
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The Twain Shall Meet
Pattu plonks down on the reading cushion I have, conveniently next to a charger, phone already plugged in. Felix whines from the next room. “Ondaa…” Pattu’s instinctive response surprises me. Unless you grew up hearing it, you are not reading it with the tenderness it carries. Ammu shows up every day, 2:00 pm, a grin…
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Seeing Themselves: On Diversity in Children’s Books
Collected in The Smudged Hyphen (2026). “That is not cha-na, its chhan-na.” My 11-year-old daughter born and raised in America corrects the white traveler on television sampling street food somewhere in northern India. Our family is of Indian origin. We speak Tamil and English at home sprinkled liberally with words from Hindi that have made…
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My Shadow
She follows me from the first walk to the last, watching, learning, absorbing. On my youngest, the child I did not write down, and what it means to be seen by her.
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Going Gently Into The Night
“My headphones are not charging.” Pattu’s voice is matter of fact. She states it as if it were non negotiable, this state of her headphones. “Have to tried charging it at a different spot? Have you tried using a different charging cord, different adapter?” My questions stream out of me in the measured way of…
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Reconsider. Reformat. Reframe.
Photo by Phil Hearing on Unsplash This year will be sixteen years since I set down the path to grow my family through adoption. I have written on my blog, talked about it in interviews, ranted on social media and now, share my story on the big screen. The only constant through it all has…
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Breaching New Frontiers
“You can get drunk as much as you want to…” Ammu says playfully in conversation where her dad and I talk about her and her twin getting their learner’s permits and eventually their drivers license. “Ani! Neva…” I call out laughing as I do and head back to my oasis that is my study. “True!…
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Gen X, Gen Z And, Gen Alpha
“Let me show you what I made…” Laddu’s voice trails off as she extends her phone to me. A video, less than a minute long plays. I am impressed with the little one’s editing skills and I say so. “So, can I have my YT channel please?” Her eyebrows go up and down as she…