RAJI WRITES

It isn’t often that the stars align to find three books that are beautifully written, fit the theme of a panel discussion I am planning, and whose authors are available on the date I am planning the event! Before I introduce the event, here is the context. Silicon Valley Reads chose as its 2026 theme Bridges to Belonging. The kickoff event was held on January 15, 2026, with three featured authors in conversation with Sal Pizarro of the San Jose Mercury News: john a. powell (

Short Takes on two plays, a few Oscar-nominated movies, and an irresistible cake! Theater A Streetcar Named Desire (by Tennessee Williams) I watched a bare bones production (by design) of Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire at ACT-SF’s Toni Rembe theater. I had last watched Streetcar as an opera, commissioned by the San Francisco Opera. My friend Sunita, her mother Lulu and I managed to snag $10 tickets, standing room only at the

The Book I was excited to receive in the mail Salman Rushdie’s latest book, The Eleventh Hour , a quintet of stories (Random House, 2025). In Late, my favorite story in the collection, a retired Cambridge academic of South Asian descent wakes up one day and discovers he is dead. I loved the novel and immensely creative plot, and was moved by the compassionate portrayal of the Cambridge don as he recalls his life and interacts with a young student who alone can see him. The Mu

More Short Takes: on a literary journal, a film, a Berkeley Coffee Shop, and two novels translated from Malayalam. Weaver’s Literary Review (Volume 1, Number 2, 2025) Volume 1 Number 2 of Weaver’s Literary Review, “A Home for Writings by South Asian Americans and Others”, is beautiful and powerful, with poems, essays, translations, short stories and a review. I have read a few pieces so far, and am looking forward to reading the rest. I am honored to have in it my story Drea