Ratna writes

I'm back in Boston and I've been awake since 5am (it's fine, Mom, because I went to bed at 8). In the last hour and a half, I've had a green tea & granola snack, read a few articles, and painted my nails blue. I thought I should try to get this post out while I'm still feeling that jet lag feeling. It's kind of weird, right? Really? I have a biological clock? Given the choice, there are times when my body would actually want to be awake? Also, if I'm still on Indian time then how come I get insurmountably sleepy when it's like 7:30am there? Huh? Everyone keeps asking me why I went to India for just a week, to screw with my sleep schedule and my emotions and more. In the plane on the way home, I was asking myself the same thing. And then I experienced yesterday . I was just in between time zones enough that my body and my mind were totally free. I have never experienced the level of happiness or relaxation that I encountered yesterday. Adjusting ...

Sometimes slipping effortlessly in and out of different cultures isn’t exactly effortless. You travel and try not to get too comfortable in any one skin for fear that the others won’t recognize you when you return. Hindi accents meld with Spanish syllables and the States confuse both. Can you keep that many languages straight in your head? I can, but I risk skepticism by those who don’t believe that a white girl can speak gutter Punjabi. So you’re half Indian -- what’s your other half again? No, I’m fully Indian and I’m a linguist so I know that “Punjab” means “five rivers” but I couldn’t care less what five rivers that refers to. Bhangra and Salsa are strikingly similar but it’s tricky when your feet can’t tell the difference and you risk seeming rusty at both at parties. Sometimes you want to stay in one place for four years and not move for fear of shades of morality that can’t be blended, or because each language comes with an affect that isn’t easy to imitate. You’ve interna...