India Tag

Women / 14.05.2017

I have one mother who gave birth to me; she’s my one and only Umme, and yet I have countless other people in my life who take on the role of “mother” whether for a brief moment in time or for decades. Two of my favorite mothers raised hundreds of children. They were my paternal great-aunts, Chotee and Bhari. Chotee Phuppo and Bhari Phuppo, as they were known, directly translates to little sister on my father’s side and older sister on my father’s side. Everyone called them that until I came along. I referred to them simply as Chotee and Bhari,...

Humanity / 10.02.2016

The kindest, most genuine man I’ve ever known carried a gun. My Daada (paternal grandfather) was born in India, sometime around December 1918. Record keeping was of no importance when the family elders documented everything in an oral history, sharing stories at multi-generational family gatherings, and offering up morsels to the younger generation to carry away and savor. Daada always had to work harder, prove himself worthy, be the best in sportsmanship, scholastics, and citizenship because the color of his skin- brown. Even though the Indian population was much larger and more diverse than the Whites ruling them, it was a...