I thread my eyebrows. Yes, I admit it. Now it is out in the open for all to read. I am not ashamed and I fully embrace it. My eyebrows resemble furry caterpillars when grown without attention. They look awful. Sasmita, along with other women throughout my life has told me so. I began threading my… Continue reading The Awkwardness of Male Eyebrow Threading
Category: Family
Feeling like an Outsider at an Indian Buffet
Recently, Sasmita and I went to an Indian restaurant called Woodlands, in Langley Park, Maryland. We rarely eat Indian food outside of our house. Sasmita is a fantastic cook, and she makes most dishes either of us might order out, usually they taste better than any restaurant. She has craved South Indian cuisine for a while;… Continue reading Feeling like an Outsider at an Indian Buffet
Stories Catching My Eye
It’s been a while since I posted what I’ve read lately, so I’ll share a longer list this time. The Tragedy of the American Military An insightful piece about the disconnect between ordinary US citizens and the military and the many consequences of such distance and misunderstanding. The Rapist Next Door This story is about Alaska’s rape… Continue reading Stories Catching My Eye
An Indian-American Speaks on the State of Police in America
In October, the famous New York whistle-blower cop Frank Serpico, gave a long interview to Politico Magazine. As a Serpico fan and certainly of the movie (Al Pacino is fantastic), I read it. Part of the interview is about police accountability and the lack of it when he was in the force and its continuance today. As… Continue reading An Indian-American Speaks on the State of Police in America
The First Christmas Knowing my Indian family
Sasmita and I celebrated our third Christmas holiday season together in 2014. But it was the first Christmas that I actually know my Indian side of our family, the Nayaks. As I wrote about here, Sasmita and I visited them in June 2014. We had an Indian wedding ceremony and stayed in her village, Alligonda at her parent’s house for a… Continue reading The First Christmas Knowing my Indian family
Stories Catching My Eye
In the wake of continuing police violence against unarmed citizens, I found this piece well worth reading. Why It’s Impossible to Indict a Cop On December 3rd, 1984, the world’s worst industrial disaster took place in Bhopal, India. Most have never heard of it. It’s terrifying and tragic. An author retraces the fateful morning and… Continue reading Stories Catching My Eye
A Small Thank You to my Parents this Thanksgiving 2014
For those unaware, this is National Adoption Awareness Month. There has been a lot of social media about this, some good pieces in well-known magazines, like the NY Times and elsewhere. National Adoption Month, was created to raise awareness and celebrate foster care adoption. In recent years it has been co-opted by the Adoption lobby and by those… Continue reading A Small Thank You to my Parents this Thanksgiving 2014
My brother-in-Law Ajit: The Nayak’s Great Family Tragedy
Ajit Nayak is my brother-in-law and he is mentally and physically disabled. Since I’ve known Sasmita, I have heard stories about her brother who is two years older than me and his disability. One day this summer, my father-in-law Valentine and I were chatting about life in Village Alligonda. He began telling me about Ajit,… Continue reading My brother-in-Law Ajit: The Nayak’s Great Family Tragedy
Some Delhi Observations
Sasmita and I spent one full week in Delhi in May 2014. We were there primarily buying wedding clothes for the Nayak family and ourselves. We also visited some friends we stayed in touch with and who made indelible marks on our lives. I remarked to Sasmi at one point that Delhi felt comfortable and… Continue reading Some Delhi Observations
We’re going back to India – to marry again.
Sasmita and I are traveling to Odisha, her birth state, in Eastern India, from late May to mid-June 2014. The reason: to be married in a Catholic Mass about 30 minutes away from the village Alligonda where she grew up. None of her family attended our August 2012 wedding in New Jersey. The plan has always been to return… Continue reading We’re going back to India – to marry again.
‘God’s Own Country’ in the Washington Post
One of my co-workers, a fellow Malayali, forwarded me this story from a freelance writer describing a few scenes from a trip with his girlfriend to Kerala, recently published by the Washington Post. When people ask me where in India I am from and I reply ‘Kerala,’ they are either familiar with it — saying that it… Continue reading ‘God’s Own Country’ in the Washington Post
Seeking Balance When Writing about India
I began this blog more than four years ago, to write mainly about my experience and thoughts regarding international adoption. As time progressed, I became more passionate about my roots, and that means writing and thinking increasingly about India, and her issues. Add to this fact that I married an Indian national and that my… Continue reading Seeking Balance When Writing about India
Congratulations India! Three Years Polio-Free
On January 13, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared India polio-free for the third year in a row after another full year without a single polio case reported nationwide. What an impressive achievement! Finally, some India news, beyond a Mars mission that Indians worldwide can take pride in. I slam Indian bureaucracy quite a… Continue reading Congratulations India! Three Years Polio-Free
The Devyani Khobragade Kerfuffle: A Surprising Response and Indian Political Hypocrisy
Some quick thoughts about the case of the Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade’s arrest as a common criminal in New York in late Dec 2013, accused of falsifying a Visa application for her domestic servant. She recently returned to India, after weeks of diplomatic standoff.
Miscarriage of Justice; Parents jailed for their daughter’s murder.
Aarushi Talwar was a lively, teenage girl from an up-market section of New Delhi, India called Noida. Her parents were both dentists and they, like most Indians with means, had domestic servants. She was grotesquely murdered in 2008, between the hours of 10pm and 1am, along with one of her servants, Hemraj. The only survivors… Continue reading Miscarriage of Justice; Parents jailed for their daughter’s murder.