Do Curry & Cooking Complete A Woman?

I come from a family of food-devotees, especially on my mother’s side. There are restaurant owners, pastry chefs, gourmet cooks, and mad foodies like me. When we all get together, we plan the menu for dinner as we eat lunch and discuss recipes. In many ways, we obsess about food the way...
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Ode To My Aunt

She died in childbirth, after having been put through multiple pregnancies, despite her congenital heart condition. The walls of her house do not hold any scent of her. Holes have been cemented with new relationships.   But I have seen glimpses of her behind my father’s thick glasses....
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No Ocean Here

About this Book No Ocean Here bears moving accounts of women and girls in certain developing and under-developed countries. The book raises concern, and chronicles the socio-cultural conditions of women in parts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The stories, either based on personal...
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Does Woman Mean "Woe-Men" In India?

The janitor in her school raped a good friend of mine when she was less than 8-years-old. She was in the girls’ toilet, all by herself, when this heinous crime occurred. When she came home and told her parents about the violence, most of which she couldn’t comprehend, her doctor father conducted a...
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Who Prays For Me?

The following is an essay from my upcoming nonfiction book, “Mouth Full”. On a Friday evening in the autumn season, I had gone out for drinks with a few of my co-workers in Manhattan, New York. It was a clammy evening so the mojitos at the cozy rooftop bar tasted like the ‘Holy Grail’. As it was...
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Relationships Today

Everywhere I turn, I see a relationship break. A divorce or two happen. People moving on. New chapters written. Old ones becoming a bookmark for years to come. Yes, many of my friends and peers are either undergoing separation or divorces or are in unfulfilled marriages. That definitely isn’t the...
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Finding Solace In My Pear

  (This personal essay is part of the upcoming nonfiction book: "Mouth full") Every morning, without fail I check out my reflection in our ingenuous, gigantic bedroom mirrors to make sure no extra weight sneaked upon me while I was asleep. On those rare days, when I wake up feeling...
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All It Takes Is For One Person To Believe

I have always maintained that my students make me a better human being. Needless to say, when I was recently given the opportunity to teach a 10-week poetry workshop to gifted pre-teens and teenagers in New York City, I was ecstatic. On the last day of class, aside from hugs, goodbyes, thank-yous...
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Dark Skin Is Dirty

Ever since I was a little girl, I remember the cosmetic industry in India would prey on the insecurities of women—manifested by the dysfunctional society obsessed with pale skin—and promote the use of skin-whitening cream. Ayurvedic Vicco Turmeric cream, made with turmeric and sandalwood, was...
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What is an Indian Woman’s Value?

A couple of months ago, there was an article in the First Post: From the Delhi police: Why women deserve to be raped. A Tehelka  stint aimed at over twenty police stations across the Delhi-NCR area revealed harsh, crude, misogynist testimonies of cops (30 senior police...
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