Foot Loose In America
Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts. It even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you. It should change you. ~ Anthony Bourdain
Beach Please! If Gratitude Had Two Feet
One of my daily gratitudes is to the universe for keeping me mobile and for the health and resources that let me explore this world on my own two feet. Let's see, where exactly have these feet gone so far? Cities, villages, parks, paddy and sunflower fields, deserts,...
The America I Met at a Truck Stop: A Road Trip, Kind Strangers, and the Small Acts That Hold Us Together
These days, when I ask my children to come with me on road trips, they think I'm looking for a buddy so I can share the driving load. At 21 and 17, they have every right to think what they want. But what parent doesn't want to stay attached to the hip of their child,...
Unforgettable Travel Essays That Reveal Art, Belonging & Humanity Beyond Any Map
I am writing to introduce you to my travel essays because these are pieces I'm most proud of. I'm attaching a few lines from some essays here. Hope you enjoy them and visit the place vicariously through my words. "I still get goosebumps when I think about the...
I Walked In as a Tourist and Left Feeling Like I Belonged Somewhere I’d Never Been Before
Selling Our Soul to The Arts I arrived in SFO as a tourist, but the moment I walked into SFMOMA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, it felt like I belonged there. I was suddenly in the company of over 50,000 artists’ works. The Grand Atrium’s minimalist...
I Stumbled Upon a Baby Shower in a Café. It Became a Reminder That Joy Finds Us Anywhere.
It's safe to say it's been a while since I've attended a baby shower. I don't even come across infants on a regular basis. I last saw a baby (almost 1 year old) was at a party this past Thanksgiving. My friend had a grandbaby in 2025. So, that's that. And also...
Living in America’s Melting Pot While Confronting the Housing Crisis No One Talks About
It’s safe to say that even in America, as a true blooded Indian, I live in my own world of Indian food and Bollywood style parties. What little I understand about how everyone else lives is mostly through shows like Friends, Seinfeld, Sex and the City and movies like...
Homesick for the Stars – Read by Rachana
https://youtu.be/AHm4v2h1PhU - Want To Listen To The Article Instead? - Homesick for the Stars This essay is about travel, wanderlust and our perennial need for discovery. I wrote this while staring at a glorious sunset. As the golden hour sky...
Between Two Worlds: An Indian American Woman’s Honest Take on Identity, Culture, and Belonging
Observations, Opinions, and Cultural Critique Cultural Essays from a Life Lived Between Worlds
Finding Peace on a Walk Across America: What a Dog, the Deep South, and a Buddhist Monk Teach Us
How Do We Find Peace? “By practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness is the medicine we all need.” This was the answer given by a Buddhist monk at the Walk for Peace event yesterday in deep south Georgia. And what a moment it was. A Pilgrimage of Peace in...
Writer-At-Large – The 2025 Indian-American Documentary – Final Part
Continued from Part I HERE JULY My son sent me pictures of the Harvard university library from his visit to Boston and I lamented to him that it's the right place for me, and then got back to my life here in ATL. After all, I had to wash all our Indian...
Writer-At-Large – The 2025 Indian-American Documentary
Not Your Average Recap The last time I did a pictorial essay of this nature was in 2014. I had then talked about bathroom selfies I had taken, although they didn't make me look like Kim Kardashian. But, more on that some other time. Earlier today, I wrote how...
A Year in Writing 2025: Art, Emotion, and the Ideas That Shaped My Inner World
- On Motherhood As a Writer-At-Large and primarily as a mother, I wrote about Kanu dappika, the longing of a mother to see her children in A Mother’s Words for the Ache of Missing Her Children. I beamed in joy when they literally and metaphorically were touching grass...
Scandinavian Crime Fiction That Excels In The Art of Being Moody and Riveting
- I work with a lot of Danes, and I find them quietly fascinating. They're humble, economical with words and rarely interrupt in meetings. Even if they are the subject matter experts, they don't find the excessive need to show off their merits like some of us...
Homesick for the Stars
When I stumble into landscapes like these, I can't help but laugh at the audacity of man — thinking we can tame this beastly beauty of nature and dare to call it "mine." Let everything happen to you: Beauty and terror. So I do. I stand still in trembling reverence at...
Inside The Moth Atlanta: A Night of Stories About Belonging, Bravery, and Being Human
At the Moth spoken word storytelling event yesterday, the stage was literally set. But, I was never meant to be there. Who pays $80 and drives to downtown Atlanta on a weeknight to listen to five ten-minute stories? I had told myself. But then came a last-minute nudge...
At Atlanta’s Bobby Dodd Stadium, The Line Between Faith And Football Is Blurred
I just walked out of a Georgia Tech vs. University of Pittsburgh football game at half time. And it was not looking good for our Yellow Jackets, let me tell ya. Yup, by the time I finished writing this, my son has told me, we've lost. When our 21 year old got us...
The Night I Aired My Dirty Laundry In The Heart Of St. Petersburg
- As my friend, A, and I wandered around downtown St. Petersburg with a diet coke and a hoagie in hand, she stopped to open a dirty looking glass door. She tilted her head motioning me to step in. "What, inside here?" I asked, eyebrows raised and quickly glancing...
When East Met West Under the Georgia Sky: A Fusion Wedding at Serenbe
Two Worlds, One “I Do” What can two families born 8000 miles apart yet raising their kids in the deep south of the US have in common? Their children, who inspite of cultural differences, might go on to make promises to love each other forever. And that's what I...