Pranoti Nagarkar looks across the kitchen counter at her partner Rishi Israni. Gosh they had come a long way. 2008 was a distant memory when they had fought about who was going to make the hot roti flatbread for dinner. Pranoti, who had rolled rotis since the age of 8...
Why do I feel a kinship with Ash Kalra, D-CA 27? Maybe because we are both Indian, Canadian-born, Bay Area transplants? Though 20 years my senior, Ash Kalra speaks my language. He mirrors my experience, taking a non traditional path of social justice. Not an engineer...
I remember my first day at my Americorps program, Public Allies Silicon Valley – a program which recruits young people to engage in grassroots activism. I stood alone – the only Indian in the room of 40 people. Discomfort was the first emotion. Will anyone...
In September, 2019 sujatha baliga won the MacArthur “Genius Award” for her work in Restorative Justice. The MacArthur fellowship is awarded to individuals who have shown “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for...
As we look back on this past decade of rapid and polarizing social change in the USA, its end has been defined by political upheaval, the #MeToo reckoning, and climate change controversies. In spite of climate change deniers and the defanged EPA, we saw progress with...
I was 38 when I adopted my daughter Richa in 1997. Richa’s birth mother was 18 when she gave her up in 1996. I have often thought about the loss this woman (child, really) must have experienced, and have felt so much compassion for her situation and gratitude for her...
