Category: Inspiration

Hello friends and family. The annual Desi Kid Lit Summit 2021 was this past Sunday, October 24th. It was a fantastic three hour virtual event. Today’s blog post is dedicated to sharing the experience. 

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Rajani LaRocca (author of Red, White, and Whole) commenced the summit with a beautiful keynote. She articulated how many Desi authors have felt. Noone has the right to tell us who and what to write about. We decide what we write about. We belong. So, go create your art. Go write your story. Write them for the whole world. Most importantly, write them for you.

Then, Rashmi Bismark (author of Finding Om) and Archaa Shrivastav offered a heartfelt tribute respecting those who laid the foundation for us to grow together. Remembering them reconnects us to our appreciation for their work. It connects us to that space in each of us that yearns to keep that alive. They honored writers like Uma Krishnaswamy ​​and Tanuja Desai Hidier and Padma Venkatraman and Hena Khan.

Following the tribute, Saadia Faruqi discussed her latest book, Yusuf Azeem is Not a Hero, which she wrote about 9/11. She was tired of the few MG books about the people who were seen as the enemy.  Rukhsanna Guidroz (author of Samira Surfs), Shanthi Sekaran (author of Samosa Rebellion), and Anita Amin (author of Raja’s Pet Camel) shared their backgrounds, experiences as traditionally published authors, and characters of hope in their books.

Adiba Jaigirdar, author of Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating introduced Priyanka Taslim (author of upcoming book The Love Match), Naz Kutub (author of the upcoming book The Loophole), and Aamna Qureshi author of The Lady or the Lion. They shared how their books are relevant to the Desi community. This relevance includes using Urdu words, queer South Asian books, and Bangladeshi-inspired YA works. Aamna advised marginalized authors to never give up. There is someone waiting for your story. Priyanka shared similar advice, and that the long journey to traditional publishing is worth it. Writers can feel isolated, but we have this wonderful community who lift one other up. Naz reminded all of us we should be our biggest inspirations in our stories.

All of the 2022 debuts in attendance had an opportunity to introduce our novels. I was thrilled to share more about my debut YA Lioness of Punjab releasing in the Fall of 2022. Check out the full list below:

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Next, in true Desi style, we had a dance party to Lamborghini!! I must say Sita Singh has amazing Bhangra moves. 🙂

After the dance party, Swati Avasthi (author of Split) discussed decolonizing our imaginations, a growing theory and practice, with Meera Sriram (author of a Gift for Amma) and Karuna Riazi (author of The Gauntlet). Swathi shared our mutual struggle with writing stories about and for people of diverse backgrounds because we haven’t read many stories with people like us.

Meera grew up in India, and associated proficiency in English with intelligence. Then when she immigrated to the U.S. and missed her homeland, she yearned for her native Indian stories. That is how she gained the courage to tell stories about her homeland.

Then, Karuna discussed the importance of seeing ourselves in stories, and stories like The Secret Garden being told through the Desi lens. Swathi eloquently quoted Jarret Martineau and Eric Ritskes: “…the task of decolonializing artists, scholars and activists is not simply to offer amendments or edits to the current world, but to display the mutual sacrifice and relationality needed to sabotage colonial systems of thought and power for the purpose of liberatory alternatives.”

Finally, Gayatri Sethi and Anuradha Rajurkar closed out the conversation with beautiful reflections from the summit. Gayatri (author of Unbelonging) shared a powerful quote from Valarie Kaur’s memoir See No Stranger: “Shallow solidarity was baked on the logic of exchange—You show up for me and I will show up for you. But deep solidarity was rooted in recognition—I show up for you because I see you as a part of me. Your liberation is bound up in my own.”

Also, check out this amazing reel Nadia Salomon put together:

Desi Kid Lit Summit 2021

Thank you to Gayatri Sethi and Saadia Faruqi and all of the panelists and speakers. Thanks to Sailaja for hosting the zoom and creating the recording, and Nadia for preparing the website. Thank you to the planning committee featured below:

Names in order of left to right and top to bottom: Gayatri Sethi, Saadia Faruqi, Sailaja Joshi, Payal Doshi, Nadia Salomon, Rashmi Bismark, Navdeep Singh Dhillon, Adiba Jaigirdar, and Swathi Avasthi.

I think I speak for all of the attendees when I say we are grateful for your time and sharing of information. But mostly, we appreciate the Desi community’s uplifting and authentic storytelling.

Hello everyone, I am sending love to each of you. In case you can’t tell, today’s blog post is going to get real. I’ve been thinking about how I want to honor the memory of the legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and the seven other people who died in a helicopter crash. And this, from the legend himself, summed it up: Follow Your Passion.

What is your passion? Mine is my family, first. And though I prefer to keep my family life private, I am unwavering in that passion. As many of us were reminded by the tragic loss of those individuals on the helicopter that day, I urge everyone to reflect on what matters, and follow their passion. 

I am a basketball fan (Go Rockets!), and you can’t be one without recognizing Kobe’s carefully honed mastery of the game. You don’t even have to be a basketball fan to recognize his skill! With that same mamba mentality finding your passion pays off. If you watch the youtube video link posted in the above paragraph Kobe says, “And you gotta be really honest with yourself about it. If you wake up in the morning, and your dreading going into work dude, do something else. Do something else. And those are hard decisions to make. But, when you make those decisions it’s a very liberating experience. And you will find out that the rewards will come.” I agree with this. How do you feel about it?

But, the only way to achieve your dreams, and follow your passion, is with due action. Kobe also says in the above youtube link, “I think the best way to prove your value is to work. Is to learn. Is to absorb. To be a sponge. But you always want to outwork your potential. As hard as you believe you can work, you can work harder than that.” I agree with this too. What are your thoughts? I’d love to know.

I love to write, and it’s the one craft I can engage in steadfastly without tiring (well okay, I do tire, but you get the idea). Right now, I don’t make money writing. And since my first passion is my family, my husband and I happily provide. I enjoy my career. Because that is caring for our priority one passion. No excuses. When our kids sleep at night, I write. Because hard work, and following your passion are part and parcel. I credit my immigrant parents for my understanding of this ethic. They taught us to be responsible first, and focus on what matters. Of course, occasionally my father asked, “What is this passion you all always talk about?” Still, my parents never discouraged passion, rather encouraging the duality of responsibility and practicality with passion. 

Below is another link I found motivational featuring Kobe Bryant and his role model, Michael Jordan. Hope you do as well. 

So, I’ll ask you again: What is your passion? Are you following your passion? If you are pursuing your passion, how are you making it a reality?

Thanks for stopping by my blogspot. Sending you virtual hugs. Blog you soon.

Hello friends. Thank you for checking into my little space of the webosphere. I am so happy to have you back! I wanted to delve into the benefits of journaling today. To be completely honest, I don’t journal (GASP), so it feels super hypocritical to write a blog post about an activity I don’t participate in. I have convinced myself that there is no time amidst working full time, writing manuscripts and blogs, and enjoying time with my family. Still, maybe if I write the blog it will persuade many of us to start journaling. 

I watched a video teaching in a writing program I am enrolled in through compel training last night. I was reminded in the class, that journaling benefits writers because it provides you with writing practice, IF you focus on grammatically correct writing. Also, you may use some of that journal content in a blog post or book. I decided to dig into some of the other benefits of journaling, and thought you might appreciate me sharing what I found out.

One benefit that stuck out to me is the link between journaling and memory. We draft our ideas in words, and forming those letters causes our minds to compose and edit, forcing us to recall information. That continued recollection strengthens your memory.  I know I could use that, jeez—what did I go upstairs for again? 

Additionally, discipline is a key benefit of journaling as well. If you commit to journaling every morning, for say fifteen minutes, that discipline becomes a habit. And habits are just that—habits. So, if discipline in journaling exists, then that same dedication will bubble over into other areas of your life. 

There are some more obvious benefits as well, such as increasing your vocabulary. Unless your journaling is purely an emotional outlet, which is beneficial and therapeutic in itself, then you will have a natural inclination to research new words. And if anyone else remembers the SAT, vocabulary is a systemic measure of intelligence. Would you agree? And has your vocabulary increased through journaling?

The artist in me could not leave out the creativity and healing journaling provides. If you let loose, and allow ideas that pop into your mind flow through to your fingertips and onto your keyboard, you will probably create some magnificent language-art (like that word?). Also, if you write through any challenges you face, working through them in words, might actually resolve them for you. Journaling increases your emotional intelligence as well by allowing you to process your own emotions, and empathize with others’ feelings. If you journal, have you noticed enhanced empathy?

Finally, journaling can help you hone in on your goals, and improve communication, which are relevant skills in almost any line of work. And those who communicate well on paper are linked to being better speakers. 

So, if you weren’t convinced to journal before, hopefully you are now! (I am a little more open, folks.) What did you think of this blog post? Do you journal? And if you don’t, will you start? What have you gained through journaling?

Thanks for stopping by my blogspot. See you soon, same time, same place.