by Samantha Rajaram | Nov 18, 2017 | Books
THE LAST GODS OF INDOCHINE by Samuel Ferrer. 422 pages. Signal 8 Press. Also available as a Kindle ebook. I can’t recall when I first read Edward Said’s groundbreaking book Orientalism, which critiques the oversimplification and romanticizing of the East by colonizers...
by Samantha Rajaram | Jul 16, 2017 | Fiction, General
He waits on the corner of Mission and 21st. Their third date. He wears a black shirt, blousy around his paunch. He mentioned in a text that he had ten pounds to lose, though his online profile stated he couldn’t date anyone who was even a little overweight. Well, she...
by Samantha Rajaram | May 10, 2017 | Articles, General
My mother completed her pediatric residency in Long Island, New York some 43 years ago, before the era of paid maternity leave. Every year on my birthday, she recounts the details of my birth, always including the fact that she worked until a few hours before having...
by Samantha Rajaram | Mar 3, 2017 | Viewpoint
In the past week, I have been thinking about my childhood trips to India. The jet lag—the surreal feeling of leaving one country and waking up in another. Upon returning to the United States, my sister and I would stay up all night until my father took us to...
by Samantha Rajaram | Aug 20, 2010 | Perspectives
I have finally begun reading the Bhagavad Gita, at the age of 36. I’ve known about it for years, of course, but instead chose to read works from the western canon—Shakespeare, Donne, Swift, with an occasional helping of Stephen King. I’ve always believed that certain...
