Category: Blog

  • A Letter to Kate Middleton

    Dear Kate, You seem like a perfectly charming young lady from what I can see, although I must say I haven’t really seen much, not having watched any footage of your wedding or your attendance at other events apart from the Olympics where the cameras inevitably followed you as you cheered on your fellow Brits…

  • My Mother and Jack Bond

    Every Christmas it came with the inscription “Across the Miles” scrawled across a corner of the envelope in that inimitable hand, a kind of forward-slanted print with its characteristic serifs ornamenting several letters. Jack Bond’s greetings had arrived at my parents’ house ever since I could remember, along with other cards from the UK where…

  • The Americanization of Kim Pereira

    I was lunching with my friend Lane when, in response to something I said, he assumed the amused tone he acquires when he’s about to say what he thinks is profoundly obvious, and remarked, “Dude, get used to the idea; you’re an American!” Which of course started me thinking about the whole matter. What does it…

  • Ricordi di Italia (Memories of Italy)

    Even a couple of weeks traveling abroad is quite an inward journey; another step towards discovering one’s true identity. I’ve always felt somewhat of a cultural platypus with my feminine first name, my Portuguese last name, my strange accent, my Indian roots and European literary background, my own brand of Americanism, having been raised Catholic…

  • “I Saw the Angel in the Marble”–Michelangelo

    “There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination.”  Willy Wonka. This morning in an interview Annie Clark said that she’s reluctant to explain a song, preferring to leave a little room for people to put themselves in it.  This got me thinking that I have always believed an artist should never have…

  • Is There a God?

    Stephen Fry’s excoriating indictment of God, which is making the social media rounds, gave me pause because it sounded reasonable enough. If there is a God who is considered all-loving, how can he permit the horrific suffering (particularly on the innocent) that runs rife in this world? But that begs the question: if there is…

  • Music and Me

    I was watching a performance of Tosca on TV this afternoon and wishing I understood opera better…or classical music…or any form, really. We didn’t own a record player, so growing up we were dependent on the sparse offerings on our radio, which didn’t work half the time.  We heard pop music once a week, broadcast from…

  • Ask me Where I’m From!

    Yes, you can ask me which part of Asia I’m from. At least you’re acknowledging that people from the subcontinent (and not just fro the far east) are Asians. I know it isn’t PC to ask people where they’re from if the implication is that they can’t possibly be American. But we can tell if…

  • I am not a Patriot

    I’ve never really subscribed to the term “patriotism,” but recent events have prompted a more careful consideration of this idea. During the terrorist attacks of the past few years (here in the U.S., across the globe, and in India, the land of my birth) I have felt strangely unmoved by sentiments of nationalism. Not once…

  • The Mommy Lobby

    The so-called Mommy Lobby is outraged at some Victoria Secret ad that uses young women selling underwear and swimwear, etc., and at how this objectifies women, contributing to the moral decrepitude of our society! I’ve heard this argument for decades now, holier-than-thou self-styled custodians of our moral standards inveighing against commercialization and sexual mores and social attitudes! …