Mountaineering With a Poetic Interlude
Poetry as Sanctuary – A column where we explore poetry as a means of expression for voices of the South Asian Diaspora. (Featured Image: Lalit Kumar skydiving) I am fascinated with adventure sports and I happen to like poetry. While adventure sports push us out of our...
California: The Cure
Legends of Quintessence – a Science Fiction column with a South Asian twist. Chapter 1 In a tiny house by the outskirts of Fresno, the morning was very quiet. Twenty years ago such a lull would be constantly interrupted by the swoosh, swoosh, swoosh of the windmills....
Your Featured Life
Key South Asian Players in the New Administration
South Asians in the house! -- my cousin cheers between mouthfuls of samosa and peanut chutney as Kamala Harris is sworn in as Vice President of the United States on screen. It’s a day as celebratory as it is surreal -- especially for the ‘South Asians in the house’,...
Designer Babies: The Genetic Saviors
Tell A Story - a column where riveting South Asian stories are presented like never before through unique video storytelling. Genetic Engineering has always been a promising field of science right from its inception, but to advance to a level where babies can be...
The Financial Folly of Fossil Fuels
Natural disasters are as old as our planet. From asteroid impacts that caused major species loss, to floods and plagues of biblical proportions, to modern day hurricanes and wildfires, they have affected both plant and animal life. Past events were viewed as “acts...
Community
Letters to the Editor: 2/25/2021
Dear India Currents, On skin color... I am not an apologist for the Indians' penchant for fair skin. I merely want to say that different nations/ethnic groups have different criteria for beauty/handsomeness, mostly illogical. Why is a taller man considered more...
Treatment From Mumbai to Houston: Help A Family
This is about my husband, Sanjiv Agarwal. Sanjiv is the quintessential 40-year-old - an engineer, working as a marketing professional with an FMCG company. Full of dreams and full of life, always smiling, super intelligent, the center of attraction of any gathering,...
Student Engagement Program by World Malayalee Council
World Malayalee Council, the largest and oldest Kerala diaspora fraternity institution announced the initiative formulated to engage school-going children in Middle and High schools through volunteering & leadership activities by focusing academically and...
Harjeet’s Family Suffers the Aftermath of COVID
(Featured Image from left to right: Harjeet, Asha (sister), Avtar (brother)) Harjeet Singh Zhim was born on May 17, 1983, in Panama, Central America. His family migration to Panama dates back to the early 1900s, originating with work in the Panama Canal construction....
Voices
Mountaineering With a Poetic Interlude
Poetry as Sanctuary – A column where we explore poetry as a means of expression for voices of the South Asian Diaspora. (Featured Image: Lalit Kumar skydiving) I am fascinated with adventure sports and I happen to like poetry. While adventure sports push us out of our...
The Boy Who Loved Vasant Panchami
The year was 1940. It was Magha in the Hindu lunar calendar. The Sun God was in Uttarayana. The Devas were offering their morning prayers. The portal to Heaven was open. On planet Earth, the mortals were stirring to welcome Vasant Panchami. A harvest festival flushed...
What Women in STEM Need
Desi Roots, Global Wings – a monthly column focused on the Indian immigrant experience. As I mark an important milestone in my scientific career, I notice that not much has changed since the time I joined the workforce making my goal of staying in the workforce sound...
Covid-19 Blues: Was It Love or Lust?
Based on a true story... After a really long time, I fell in love with my mirror. When I stood in front of it yesterday in my black top, I saw a radiant and gorgeous girl. Yes, a girl; a mixture of sweet and saucy, and not a woman. That’s how I would like to describe...
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Culture
Does the Great Indian Kitchen Lead to the Great Indian Marriage?
While I ran about in the sprawling open courtyard of my mother’s house in a somewhat sleepy little village in rural North Bengal, I remember my granny sitting on a low stool cooking in the dimly-lit kitchen. It was already dusk and a few hours later, a tasty dinner...
Indian Couples Plan Their Own Big Fat Indian Wedding
Indians all over the globe are binge-watching the new Netflix series, The Big Day. The series focuses on big fat Indian weddings in exotic locales and I could not get enough! The Valentine‘s day launch was on point to woo the romantic notions of thousands of couples...
Sahib’s in Love With The Maid in ‘Sir’
It’s an old Bollywood plot - rich village landlord’s son falls for poor village girl who is clearly out of his social class and caste, and they battle the world for their love. 'SIR', the 2018 movie directed by Rohena Gera, is an adventurous attempt to spin this...
Smile, Please!
Yesterday was the second time in my life I cried at the movies (the first was when I watched On Golden Pond at the Chanakya Cinema in Delhi, at the age of 22). Despite some obvious flaws, 'Smile, Please' had the honor of squeezing the saline out of my eyes, which are...
Trending
Each of Us Killers: Vignettes of Immigrant and Indian Lives
Jenny Bhatt’s debut collection of stories, Each of Us Killers brings us a sampling of experiences of a writer who has lived and worked in India, the United Kingdom, Germany, and now resides in a suburb of Dallas. Bhatt has worked as a writer, literary critic, and...
Choice and Democracy: Musings on Elections 2020
It is official. Joe Biden is the 46th man to occupy the Oval Office. Well, at least as official as it can get given the incumbent’s congenital aversion to concede. My first reaction to this victory was of course one of elation. Elation at the thought that policy by...
Ram-Rajya in America? Yes, You Heard it Right!
In October, I performed Kathak in celebrations to commemorate Dussehra, the Hindu festival that celebrates the victory of Ram over Ravan, Durga over Mahishasur, Good over Evil. As did all other aspects of our lives this year, these performances were moved online....
Insider to Outsider: Reversing the Trend in Hindu Discourse
This article is part of the opinion column – Beyond Occident – where we explore a native perspective on the Indian diaspora. Late last month, days before the US presidential elections, a prominent media outlet published an article on Indian and Hindu-American...
This Diwali, We All Could Use Some Light
From Surabhi’s Notepad – A column that brings us personal essays and stories, frivolous and serious, inspired by real-life events and encounters of navigating the world as a young, Indian woman living outside India. Dressed in an orange salwar kameez, donning a small...
Tirunangai Women ARE Women, J.K. Rowling
(Featured Image: Swetha, a transwoman and Founder of the nonprofit Born 2 Win, with actor Kamal Haasan, a supporter) Sarah McBride, Democratic candidate from Delaware, will become the first transgender state senator in the U.S. All over the world, including in India,...
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The Road to College Admissions
Lost for where to start your journey to attending a top U.S. college? Wondering if you're behind your peers? Confused about what step comes next? We have a map to help you find your way. There are steps you can take all four years of high school to improve your...
Register For Chabot College’s Spring Semester Today
Apply today for Spring Classes at Chabot College! Looking to train for a new job, transfer to a four-year university, or learn a new trade? Chabot College offers over 20 student and academic support programs to help you reach your educational and career goals. Chabot...
Opinion
Iconoclasm Is an Expression of Fanaticism
This article is part of the opinion column – Beyond Occident – where we explore a native perspective on the Indian diaspora. After he was killed by an assassin’s bullets almost 73 years ago on a cold January day in Delhi, the locals found a decapitated statue of...
It’s Just a Little Cancer. No Need to Make a Fuss.
Monday, December 1, 1967, 4:21 AM. Bombayites were rudely awoken from their slumbers as the world around them shook. It was the devastating Koyna earthquake. My mother recalled being panicked at the steel “Godrej” cupboards rattling together. “Aiyayo, what is...
India’s Military Campaigns Beyond Her Boundaries
We often hear that Indian rulers throughout history never invaded other countries – never established colonies in foreign lands. The above statements are made, no doubt, to extol the virtues of our Hindu/Buddhist civilization - its emphasis on high philosophy, a...
Am I Allowed to Have Sex On My Mind?
Desi Talk – A column that works on embracing our brown background and unique identity using Coach Yashu’s helpful tips. Find her talking to IC Editor, Srishti Prabha on Instagram LIVE Tuesdays at 6pm PST/ 9pm EST! After conducting a free Sex Education workshop, the...
Health & Wellness
Eat Yourself To Health
Viruses are smart, they are masters of survival. They can hijack our body’s own mechanisms to live and multiply. During a productive infection, viruses hijack, multiply and destroy the cell that they call home for a very short time. Bacteria and parasites have also...
How to Work On Your Relationship During a Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has wrought unprecedented levels of distress on an international level. Such global upset can trickle down and translate to a personal level as well, particularly when it comes to relationships. After all, sheltering-in-place with your partner...
Suvita’s Solution to Mass Vaccinations Involves Gossip
(Featured Image: Pippa Ranger, Innovation Advisor, DFID) In the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic, vaccination is a hot topic globally. In America, 400,000 people have died. We still don't have a uniform understanding of the efficacy, distribution, availability, and side...
The Virus & The Vaccine
Getting the COVID19 vaccine out of the freezer and into people's arms has been slow. And, even as people battle unsympathetic websites to find slots for a shot, there still are many unanswered questions. Will people who have been vaccinated still be asymptomatic and...
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Lifestyle
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: From Trinidad to America
Being newly retired, memories of my childhood bubbled up, as I finally had time to daydream. My father’s grandmother, Gangee Maharaj, arrived in Trinidad from Raipur, India in 1900. Many Indians came to Trinidad as indentured laborers eventually earning plots of land...
Youth
Love. Come. Go Away.
Love come, go away like curtains you fall back and forward in the golden hour of the darker lights hidden, open, quiet breathe, you’re loud, soft to touch hold me against your skin if only our eyes linger blue, your footsteps reside and awake like waves between our...
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From the Publisher
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