I’ve always been quite fond of my name—Iris. My mother’s decision to name me after the rainbow goddess turned out to be fitting for the years to come as I grew up between a clash of cultures and identities. The different colors of what I had seen, felt and experienced shaped who I am today. …
One of my earliest memories is of panic. At four years old I returned from a summer with my family in India and struggled to take hold of English. It was in many ways an unbalancing, a question posed with no clear answer – if I could hold onto only one language, Tamil or English,…
You’ve seen it—whether sitting in the dorm hallways, meandering in broad daylight, or lying in bed at night—students and their loved ones update each other about their lives. Sometimes, they speak in loving tones. Sometimes, they debate in exasperated whispers. Other times, both sides laugh hysterically as their cameras pan around to share bits of…
There is something strangely sad about watching cars drive away, especially ones you know well. It is that feeling of an almost-loss, like you are teetering at the edge of the realization that the car is too far away to call back. Soon, it will turn the corner and you will no longer be able…
The crops swaying in the wind, The gushing canal watering the fields, Farms – India’s lifeline. Waking up at the crack of dawn, Tending to the fields, without complaining, Farmers – India’s lifeline. It was December 5, 2020. I was supposed to catch a flight to the US from New Delhi along with my family.…
Hot on the heels of 2018’s “Asian August,” which showed media executives that Asian-centered stories can be profitable, HBO and Netflix have released reality shows centered on Asian families and social circles. HBO’s House of Ho centers on the Vietnamese-American Ho family in Texas, and Netflix’s Bling Empire covers a group of East Asian socialites…