At the end of August, I wrote a post about the topics that I expected to cover in Chapter 12. At the time I estimated that it would take me
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Queen Victoria
It is safe to say that the most unlikely personality in Anandi’s story is Queen Victoria, Empress of India. A few weeks after the commencement, the dean of the College sent a letter
The Frozen Water Trade
“Ice should be given internally. ” I was startled when I read this prescription in Anandi’s thesis, in the section describing treatments for a fragile pregnancy. Ice? in India? During the 1870s?
Ethnobotanist
The New York Times Magazine has a superb article titled “Could Ancient Remedies Hold the Answer to the Looming Antibiotics Crisis?” Through the story of a researcher at Emory University,
Another First Indian Woman Doctor
How can there be two firsts in the same category? Read on! I came across a book called A Warrior of the People: How Susan La Flesche Overcame Racial and
Comparing Obstetric Practices
Anandi’s thesis was on the topic of obstetrics among Hindus. It is a fifty-page document written in her beautiful cursive script. It is as good a primary source as it is possible
Chapter 12 ramp-up
My process of writing a chapter has evolved considerably since I first started this project over five years ago. The first few chapters were challenging as I was struggling (in
Chapter 11 Complete!
I completed the first draft of Chapter 11 a few days ago. Here are the highlights: Gopal in San Francisco and Salt Lake City. Contradictory views about women’s freedoms, inflammatory speeches about
Between the Hijab and the Bikini
Yesterday’s New York Times has an op-ed by Roger Cohen titled Olympians in Hijab and Bikini. It features the below photograph of Egyptian Doaa Elghobashy and German Kira Walkenhorst: As I read the op-ed
Daughter, Soldier, Medic
A slight change of focus. I felt inspired by the story of Khizr Khan (and his wife Ghazala) and the speech he gave at the Democratic National Convention. And, was