This week, I realized that I’ve made tremendous progress on my once-stalled novel (210 pages down, yay!), but I also had a tiny heart attack when I looked at my Excel sheet and realized that I’d brought in no new assignments, aka paying work, for several weeks. Oy. So I did what every reasonable freelancer […]

I spent a large part of my teens feeling badly about the way I looked, not because I particularly disliked my body, but because it wasn’t up to the standard of perfection that society had set for us. I spent a large part of my twenties feeling badly about who I was—an Indian woman who […]

There’s a pale blue sweater that I’ve owned since I was in high school. It’s in tatters now—the zip no longer works, there are a few holes that aren’t visible unless you’re looking for them, and pockets that are shredded from the inside. But at home, I wear this blue sweater all the time. I […]

A friend of mine told me over lunch the other day how her being a hyperactive child had been a nightmare for her parents for years. This being India, her mother asked every neighbor, friend, and relative for advice, even dragging her along to astrologer after astrologer to find out what was wrong with her […]