My first day in the United States was so bright, I thought I had flown around the world and returned to India again. I was wearing a blue and white nylon sari, my hair was done in a braid hanging … Continue reading
She bore the face of Nutan, the film star, and the smile of a Hollywood celebrity. With ringlets of bobcut hair framing her face, she seemed an image of abandon. I envied Prafulla. Not only for her looks but also for her chic. … Continue reading
I read a New York Times news story about 120 degrees temperatures in India. And I see my mother, Aai, her face gaunt, her body emaciated. Take me away, she is begging. Take me someplace cool. Take me to a … Continue reading
In 2015, a writer named Dawn Dorland donated a kidney to an anonymous donor. She should have received accolades. Instead, another writer named Sonya Larson wrote a short story about it, titled The Kindest. Not a story depicting Dorland as … Continue reading
In Defense of Universal Human Rights BY SARITA SARVATE Some recent news items have made me wonder if we as a society are suffering from a kind of cultural schizophrenia. In one news story the decision to drop charges against … Continue reading
Aai and Dada in Delhi-1980 (1) Ever since the coronavirus pandemic began, I have been thinking of my mother. If ever there was a person who was ready for an epidemic, it was my mother. She was the FDA … Continue reading
Aai and Dada in Delhi-1980 (1) Ever since the coronavirus pandemic began, I have been thinking of my mother. If ever there was a person who was ready for an epidemic, it was my mother. She was the FDA … Continue reading
Until recently, American elections used to evoke in me, not angst, but wonder. When Bill Clinton ran for president, I watched The Man from Hope, a documentary about his life, over and over again, feeling inspired by the story of … Continue reading
It is said that we are currently living in the era of ‘Peak TV.’ ‘Peak TV’ as in ‘peak oil’, a concept developed in the 1950’s by industry experts who predicted that the production of petroleum would peak … Continue reading
My faith in the publishing industry began to erode the day I read Gone Girl, a book hyped as the thriller of the century, not to mention a feminist manifesto. With its violent, sadistic, and unbelievable narrator, was … Continue reading