My Inner Muse

Summer is nearly upon us and we leave in 2 weeks for a 3-month trip to Europe. We have been looking forward to spending time with our family in Germany and yet it feels so strange to travel internationally again.  A few days after updating our travel documents at the German consulate in Los Angeles recently, where we were fully masked up, my husband tested positive for COVID. What a disappointment after 2 years of the pandemic where we've been so careful, adhering to all of the social distancing efforts, vaccines, boosters, you name it.  The virus got my daughter next, and I,  being the remaining caretaker for the family, succumbed a week later. Now we are all quarantined and hopeful that we will receive our negative PCR tests in time to fly. We are thankful that our symptoms have been very mild and that our elderly parents are far away from us while we recover. Trying to understand the ever-changing COVID travel rules which vary by country and airline has been nothing sh...

Coming closer to my 55th birthday has me thinking back on my life and experiences. While the number 55 doesn't fit the way I feel, it's gratifying to reflect on the people I have met, the places I have traveled, and the many memories created over the last few decades. One thing I can say about my life is that it hasn't been very conventional. I have never fit very neatly into categories when it comes to describing who I am. This has been a continually fascinating and perplexing question to respond to over the years. I was born in India, but am neither Hindu nor Muslim. Rather I grew up in a Christian household in which both sides of my family converted 4-5 generations ago due to the persistence of American missionaries and the influence of British colonial rule. Christians are a minority in India, and Adventists are a minority within Protestant Christian denominations, so I often felt quite different than everyone around me. This 'differentness' shaped me in so many...

I am dusting off this blog after an 8-year hiatus. So much has happened in my life, career and relationships, including aging nearly a decade. Perhaps the most shaping influence of late has been living through a once-in-a-generation pandemic and the way the last 16 months has reset my priorities, needs, and expectations of myself and the folx around me. I've realized that I can do with a lot less. Frankly, I've worn the same 5 tops for most of the past year, paired with shorts or joggers, and flip flops most days. The shoes and clothes in my closet have been ignored  -- they're too fussy, constricting, wrinkly, unnecessary -- and I just can't be bothered. Having a closetful of clothes, not to mention several seasonal boxes in the attic, seems frivolous and out of touch with what is important in the day-to-day pandemic life I've grown accustomed to.  With my classes moved online, my teaching style shifted, and I became more acutely aware of the challenges my students...