Faith, Hope and Love

I was invited to be the Keynote speaker by Farmingdale State College Multicultural Committee at their annual gala. Following is my full keynote.

Mar 19th in Venice

I left India and flew back to America to my empty life. I got back into work. Amidst nightmares of losing Didi and days of bawling with grief, I somehow planned a trip – to spend Didi’s birthday; Mar 19th in Venice. Human beings are strange.

A ball, A cop and John Lennon’s Imagine

As the year passed, we discovered a phenomenon called “New Year’s Eve at Times Square”. It was all anyone would talk about – the exhilaration of the countdown leading to the ball drop and the romance of kissing a lover under a rain of confetti to the tune of John Lennon’s Imagine reminding us to live for today.

To My Santa

It was Christmas morning and I had just woken up. I was 8 years old and had never received a Christmas gift before in my life..

“Earl Gray Moment”

What tea would you like?” asked the waitress as she flipped open the top of a tea box in front of us.

“English Breakfast” said I AND Mark, almost in unison.


I looked at Mark and said “English Breakfast?”

A Wall of Hope

“Delhi Burning” screamed the headlines of a major newspaper. It was November 2nd 1984, and riots plagued Delhi, after the then Indian Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi was gunned down by her own Sikh bodyguards. When the news of her assassination broke, mobs of Hindus filled with rage took to the streets in Delhi, seeking vengeance & killing any Sikhs they came across. Two days after her death, most areas of my city were under total curfew as the flames of communal fire erupted in neighborhood after neighborhood.

HOME

We make this journey of life looking for a home – which actually appears to me is the place where we are loved – fully, wholeheartedly, just as we are. It doesn’t mean we don’t do the work – because finding home or love requires “home-work”. As Kahlil Gibran said “When love beckons to you follow him, though his ways are hard and steep.”

The Invisible String

I have never remembered my mother as much as I have in the past couple of years, nor have I missed her as much, nor have I channeled her as much.

When the time is right

“How on earth are we going to find any men if we never go on any dates?”
“The doorbell will ring, we will open the door and there they will be…”

My sister responded to my frustrated question with a grin, the gorgeous dimples on her cheeks deepening, her arm dramatically making the wide gesture of opening a door. She winked at me and added in her usual know-it-all attitude “….when the time is right.”

“Of course!” I said, rolling my eyes.

Go Back To Your Country (on the 20th anniversary of 9/11)

“Go back to your f***ing country” — the words hit me like ice-cold water. I stared unblinkingly at the speaker, unable to process the words directed at me. My face still wore the awkward smile it had when I had rolled down my window to better understand what the passengers in the car next to mine […]

Human No. 1

It was love at first sight. There she was, walking surreptitiously across the garden, up the steps of our deck, watching every movement around her; ready to scuttle away if I so much as breathed. She was tiny and I guessed no more than 6 weeks old. She was also skinny and wet and bedraggled, […]

Re-thinking Ginger Rogers

I am listening to my brilliant and menopausal acting coach as she goes through another oneof her hot flashes. “For a couple of minutes my brain shuts down. All I can think of is I amon fire. And I am panicking because I am in the middle of an audition which makes me feeleven hotter…“ […]

J.K. Rowling f***ing ruined my life

I stood in the corridor of a Delhi hospital watching the live feed of a Colonoscopy in progress. My sister; the love of my life, the red in my painting, the bread on my plate; was in the exam room getting a Colonoscopy. For the first few minutes of the procedure, everything had looked as […]