Mindful Eating: Why Am I Eating Dessert?
TRY this: Take a forkful of chicken biryani. Mix in a little yogurt. Bring it to your mouth and close your eyes. Let your senses savor the taste of the meat simmered for hours till it falls off the bone, blending with the flavors of the cardamom-infused basmati rice. Do that with every bite. There\’s […]
The strange case of Matthew Cordle: drunk driver who confessed on YouTube
Have you heard of Matthew Cordle? He\’s the Ohio man who confessed to killing a man after a night of binge drinking, in a notorious YouTube video. The video has been viewed more than 1.9 million times, and has received a lot of attention in social media networks. In the video that went viral, Cordle\’s […]
WHEN AS GOOD AS IT GETS, IS GOOD ENOUGH: Drawing life lessons from the story of Rajaratnam and Rajat Gupta
Like every other immigrant, I\’ve been consumed with the story of the disgraced Raj Rajaratnam and Rajat Gupta unfolding in the Indian American diaspora. As Anita Raghavan\’s book, \”The Billionaire\’s Apprentice\” details, these guys were already fabulously, vulgarly wealthy. (Rajaratnam is the one who loaned Rajat Gupta $5 million at one time.) They had no […]
MY ADVENTURES IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Three weeks ago, when packing for a family vacation to Istanbul I couldn\’t help feeling a frisson of fear crawl down my spine. The number of well-wishers, friends and family attempting to dissuade us from traveling there, due to spreading unrest, could now be counted in multiple digits. Our flights to Turkey were booked for […]
An Ode to Fathers Everywhere
I\’m cleaning out the closet and I come across the poem my 19-year-old had penned for his Dad last year. \”You\’re amazing, you\’re the best Always teaching me how to dress You\’re so polite and kind, A person that would call you mean, would have to be blind You make me happy and glad […]
Kids killing themselves: How Teenagers are putting a permanent solution to a temporary problem
One sunny afternoon in May, my daughter looks up from her bed where she\’s sprawled with her best friend, their laptops open in front of them. I know they\’ve been checking out who\’s doing what, with whom, on Facebook. I\’ve been hearing the stifled giggles in the background as I clean and tidy the Princess\’s […]
THE BOSTON BOMBING & THE 1984 ANTI-SIKH RIOTS: A PARALLEL
The day after the Boston Marathon bombing, I view pictures of the carnage that implode on T.V. and computer screens all over the world. Bloodied limbs. Bones and fragments everywhere. Men and women shrieking in terror. The chaotic scene that resembles a war zone and not a marathon finish line. Minutes later, the Internet chatter […]
MY ADVENTURES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR
When my son calls to ask if I\’d like to watch him perform Bhangra at the Michigan Dance marathon on March 28th, I nearly choke on my Cosmopolitan. Not that I haven\’t been badgering him about a weekend I can visit, when the team performs at campus. This would allow me to see both where […]
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT MARCH
1. The Weather: Spring is in the air. I can see the cherry blossoms blooming out my office window, and my heart somersaults. This is the time of year when saplings surge through the ground, promising to replace the dreary wet carpet of winter with a fresh growth of green. Muddied boots take a rest. […]
MY EXPERIENCES AT THE COCOA BEACH WRITERS\’ CONFERENCE
MY EXPERIENCES AT THE COCOA BEACH WRITERS’ CONFERENCE Two weekends ago I attended the Space Coast Writers Guild conference in sunny Cocoa Beach, Florida. The conference, in its 31st year, is small in comparison to the upcoming San Francisco Writers conference – 80 or so attendee vs. 500+ but it draws a […]