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Welcome to my website and blog:

I was born in Bombay and raised in small towns in the north western region of India, mainly Gujarat, Saurashtra, and Rajasthan.

I came to the US on a Fulbright travel grant and went to graduate school in St. Louis, MO, where I earned a Ph.D. in microbiology, after which I joined my husband in Baltimore for post-doctoral work at the National Institutes of Health, followed by a long career in the biopharmaceutical industry (Nova/Scios-Nova) and as a science teacher at St. Paul’s School for Girls. Baltimore is my city, the home where my children were born and raised.

It was only when I began teaching that I discovered “summer” –a time when daybreak wasn’t a rat race of herding everyone (including myself)  out the door. That’s when I began to write at random in my journal–the source of what would someday become stories, creative nonfiction essays, poems, and a new career. Where Monsoons Cry is my debut collection of short stories which won the Maryland Literary Arts Award.  Using stories from Where Monsoons Cry, I designed a course entitled “Glimpses of Indian Culture”  that addresses various issues —arranged marriage, the caste system, art, cuisine, the role of women, etc. ) I enjoy teaching this course, especially at senior centers where people are unlikely to visit this enigmatic, ancient land.

I also serve on the CityLit Board of Directors, as a fiction and poetry editor for the Baltimore Review and was the President of the Maryland Writers’ Association (2014-2016)

 

At an emu farm in India:   I gave them my best smile. They glared back.

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