Every year, at the confluence of Halloween and Diwali, I chuckle. I set out my witch and my diyas, my purple spotlight and misting cauldron…
“Would the Buddha agree?” I pondered. Buddhism insists on being present and observing your thoughts and feelings and not attaching yourself to them. Transcendental happiness or nirvana is the ultimate goal of a Buddhist’s life. But the path to this ultimate “liberation of your mind” requires that you relinquish all attachment to things and people. While I generally find Buddhist principles to be beautiful and enlightening, I find this one to be impractical and unnatural.
By next year, I’ll have spent as many years in my adopted country as in my birth country. I suppose I’ll become an “Indian-American” in…
Historically, most Indian-Americans have voted democratic. Whether it’s because of the open-mindedness of this well-traveled lot, or their keen awareness of being immigrants themselves, or…
“Indian food? Again??!” bawled my kids as the fantastic aroma of rassam, green bean curry, and hot basmati rice infused the house. My youngest, I…