Clips

2023

1. What MLK Day Means to Me

2022

1. Why the Question ‘Where Are You From?’ Doesn’t Bother Me
   
2. Pregnant and Laid Off
   
3. A Gentle Disagreement or Anti-Americanism?
   
4. College Debt Forgivenes – Perils and Pitfalls
   
5. Eklavya & The Severed Thumb of Student Debt
   
6. My American Fashionista Tween Learns Desi Spending Habits
   
7. My “Ah-ha!” Moment – Learning to Let Go
   
8. Are Colorism & Casteism Connected?
   
9. I’m About to Start on a Sacred Journey
   
10. I pledged to become an American. This is why Published by the FAIR (Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism), the new ACLU. My reflection on becoming an American and living as an American.
    
11. Frozen Out: An Indian Family’s Fatal Border Crossing The sad deaths of a family of four in frozen North Dakota in January. Cautions and lessons for Indians, Americans, and especially, Indians in America.
    
12. Kids Fail Math Because the Teaching Does Not Add Up The proposed changes to the California Math Framework will harm both high-achieving and struggling students.
    
13. Why Forced Diversity Does Not Work…For Me Anyway! Thoughts on television shows ranging from “Sex and the City” to Mindy Kaling’s “Never Have I Ever.”
    
14. What the Data Show About Police Killings of Black Men (substack.com): Part 2 of my review of “Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson. The two parts taken together debunk the author’s claims about racism in American society.

2021

1. Racist Voters and Rising Hate Groups (substack.com): A critical review of the book “Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson. Part 1 of 2.
   
2. My Own Kind of “Native” American: Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.
   
3. Rangolis & Diwali: A New Meaning in a New Land
   
4. Reviving the Lost Art of Letter-Writing
   
5. Instead of stifling competition, let’s ensure all students are prepared | EdSource
   
6. I Am A Born-Again Vegetarian!
   
7. I Walk With My Foremothers When I Wear My Streedhan
   
8. Merit and Its Discontents
   
9. Feminist Men — It Does Not Have to Be an Oxymoron!
   
10. A Review of Women’s Work: A Personal Reckoning with Labor, Motherhood, and Privilege
    
11. New Beginnings. Reinvention is a gift you can give…
    Reinvention is a gift you can give yourself again and again!
    
12. One of my comments went viral!
    How to respond to your teenager’s smartphone addiction.
    
13. Social Distancing: Many Promises, But One Grave Peril
    Public hygiene through the ages. The promises and the pitfalls.
    
14. Saachi & Karuna: Linked by Language
    Two teenagers separated by oceans, learning from each other over Skype.
    
15. The Queue: A Story About Loud Music & (Un)civility
    I took a principled stand when waiting in line at the post office.
    
16. Creating Links and A Lineage
    Thoughts on becoming a grandmother.

2020

1. Khabar: Sunil Panikkath: CHAMPION OF HUMANISM
   Q&A with the current President of the American Humanist Association.
   
2. A Marshall Plan for Black Lives – Liv Literary Journal (cuny.edu)
   An impassioned plea, not for reparations, but for a set of policies that have the potential to change the inner city.
   
3. I Will Not Cancel Us!
   Thought-provoking and inspiring take on cancel culture. It’s not new at all. It happened in the Ramayan and the Mahabharat. The antidote is exemplified in the Marshall Plan and in President Lincoln’s famous post-Civil War speech.
   
4. Whom Do You Love More?
   How would you answer when your children ask this question? My response and lessons from the 90-year-old mother of a 70-year-old friend!
   
5. Childless Mother Who Birthed the Indian Women’s Movement
   For Mothers Day… a tribute to Anandi Joshee.
   
6. Why Women’s Stories Matter
   A case for why men should read women’s stories and histories.
   
7. Speaking of Home
   What my “McMansion” home means to me.
   
8. Finding Inspiration in Books and Libraries
   Why libraries are temples of knowledge and democracy.
   
9. Excavating History
   Visiting the places where history happened…. mine and Anandi Joshee’s.
   
10. Why Do I Feel Ethnic Pride?
    Trying to understand why I feel proud of the achievements of Indian-American achievers like Dr. Atul Gawande, Preet Bharara, and Anand Giridharadas. One of these days I will write a similar article about the Indian-American women I admire 🙂
    
11. Yogic Soft Power, Anyone? (won 2020 Bay Area Journalism Award from San Francisco Press Club)
    Pushing back against a poorly argued “cultural appropriation” argument about Americans’ love of yoga.
    
12. Are You My Grandmother?
    What happened when I volunteered to mentor a six-year-old girl.
    
13. Mothering Across Generations
    A casual childhood memory that offers lessons and inspiration. What I learned from how my mother mothered her mother.
    
14. My Moonshot
    My memories of the Apollo 11 moon landing….. as a 12-year-old girl in Bombay.
    
15. Arranged Marriage College (won 2020 Bay Area Journalism Award from San Francisco Press Club)
    The college admissions process is just like the arranged marriage process!
    
16. Happy Diwali, Merry Christmas
    Celebrating holidays not your own in a spirit of generosity.