@ The NRI: Getting Down Bollywood Style – Dance Classes
The lure of Bollywood is strong–paved with rhythmic dance beats, glimmering clothes, and fairy tale romance, Bollywood has been making inroads into the West for some time. And yet, I didn’t realize quite how popular Bollywood was amongst non-Indians until a couple of months ago, when I attended a packed dance class at a local gym.Despite my innate awkwardness or because of it I’ve taken a lot of dance classes. I enjoy them because they’re fast paced and, contrary to expectation, don’t...
Read MoreIndianness: Culture or Religion? @ The NRI
There are so, so many things that are difficult about raising a kid–it’s more than snuggles and reading, more than copious numbers of demon stink-filled diapers (thank goodness). The hardest part for me, I think (aside from sleep-deprivation, that is), is that while I’m helping Mir discover who he is, I’m still not sure of who I am. Some time ago, I wrote about trying to figure out our Indianness for The NRI–and my worries about cultural misappropriation. I grew up...
Read MoreWhere Are You, Christmas? @ The NRI
This Christmas past, I had a Christmas post at The NRI, which I completely forgot to blog about! Christmas is a busy time of year for us – three celebrations in three days – and things unrelated to shopping, cooking, and Joe’s birthday often slip my mind. But, better late than never… For my family, Christmas is a season in the true sense of the word: in mid-November, my mother enters Merry Magic Xmas Mode, liberating boxes of ornaments, lights, and statuary from a...
Read MoreMumbai University Censors Rohinton Mistry @ The NRI
Late last year, I saw Salman Rushdie promoting his new book, Luka and the God of Fire, at, irony of ironies, a church in Cambridge (the same church in Harvard Square once hosted Richard Dawkins). A lady in the audience asked him about the Rohinton Mistry/Mumbai university debacle, which, at that point, I hadn’t heard of. It’s quite a story, depressing and hopeful in turns, complete with politics and charismatic leaders. Here’s the blurb for the newsy piece I wrote for The NRI...
Read MoreWearing Indian Clothes In Public | Western | USA
Even now, Indian clothes are pretty, but intimidating. Perhaps it’s that my immediate family only wears them to weddings. Perhaps I’m just self-conscious. I’m not sure–but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and have written a little about it for The NRI. Here’s the blurb: I have a secret: It’s black, gold-beaded, and hanging in my wardrobe. A small blouse and skirt set I picked up in an Indian mall in Australia, it’s a smart-casual Indian outfit,...
Read MoreKnowing Me, Knowing You @ The NRI
I have a short piece about how to be Indian over @ The NRI. Writing about being Indian is hard. It’s hard because it’s something we take for granted–being Indian is not an existential exercise. There’s no check list or recipe for how to be Indian, just as there’s no recipe for how to be a woman, or a mom, or a wife. And yet there are so many ways to be Indian–clothing, cooking, language, literature–that it’s easier to feel less Indian than it is to order pakoras from the...
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