Books

Dec 74 min read

Family, Love & Civil War In Sri Lanka (Brotherless Night by VV Ganeshananthan)

Radicalization of young men in a civil war How does a young man become “radicalized?” Subject him, his family, and his community to...

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Dec 14 min read

Booker Winner Shehan Karunatilaka on Cricket, Civil War and Talking Ghosts in Colombo

“Dictators are pretty good for landscaping and gardens,” quipped Shehan Karunatilaka, winner of the 2022 Booker Prize for his novel The...

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Nov 284 min read

Ink from the Island: Sri Lankan Writers Have a Moment

The South Asian Art and Literature Festival (SALA 2024) hosted three award-winning writers of Sri Lankan descent on September 28th at...

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Nov 32 min read

"Kite", my short story in Gold Man Review

While you have read my books and theater reviews previously, Kite is my first published work of fiction. It appears in Issue 14 of Gold...

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Oct 214 min read

Erudite, Eloquent & Engaging: Shashi Tharoor at SALA 2024

Dr. Shashi Tharoor, author, intellectual, United Nations alumnus, and currently Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala,...

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May 278 min read

SALA 2023: Remembering the Highlights

Yes, it has been several months since the South Asian Literature and Art Festival (SALA 2023) at Menlo College in Menlo Park, California....

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May 7, 20235 min read

Midnight's Grandchild: "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida"

In all the years since I first read Salman Rushdie’s Midnight's Children, no book has matched its brilliance, its exuberance and its...

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Mar 30, 20234 min read

Raji's Recordings!

I have moderated book discussions and author interviews in the past few years, and even participated in a Readathon! The recordings are...

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Mar 28, 20232 min read

"The Perfumist of Paris" by Alka Joshi -- a Kepler's Books Event

The Henna Artist was released just when the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown began, and author Alka Joshi's book events switched to a virtual...

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Mar 5, 20235 min read

"Independence" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Much of the literature about India’s Partition has been written around the violence and tragedy in the northwest. The focus is the...

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Mar 3, 20233 min read

"The Second Life of Mirielle West" by Amanda Skenandore

Silicon Valley Reads had chosen “Journey to New Beginnings” as its 2023 theme. One of the books selected to showcase this theme is The...

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Oct 22, 20224 min read

Margaret Atwood at Stanford Live

Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, and winner of two Booker Prizes among other honors, graced Stanford’s Memorial...

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Jan 22, 20212 min read

Silicon Valley Reads 2021: "Connecting" - Upcoming events!

The COVID-19 pandemic took its place in our lives at the beginning of 2020, and changed life as we know it. Silicon Valley Reads picks a...

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Apr 19, 20206 min read

COVID Times, Virtual Living and Counting our Blessings

The world as we know it has changed. We are suddenly in the midst of a pandemic. Covid-19. Four syllables that have thrown our world into...

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Mar 17, 202013 min read

Black Lives and the Journeys to Racial Justice (Part II: Non-fiction & Art)

In this America, Miles Davis, Trumpeter, composer, jazz innovator, While standing outside a jazz club in New York where he was performing...

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Feb 1, 202018 min read

Black Lives and the Journey to Racial Justice (Part I: Literature)

Smart phones, video recordings and social media. With these, the daily injustices and mortal dangers faced by Black Americans have come...

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Nov 26, 20197 min read

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: the Play

Harry Potter is huge in this household. I mean, HUGE! Back in the day, when each book first came out, my friends and I would devour it in...

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Nov 10, 201910 min read

Sita's Story - "The Forest of Enchantments" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni named many modern themes: the MeToo movement, single motherhood, and victim shaming as she spoke about Sita,...

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Oct 9, 201911 min read

The Bay Area's first South Asian Literature and Art Festival (SALA 2019)

The picturesque Villa Montalvo in Saratoga was the venue for the Bay Area’s first South Asian Literature and Art Festival (SALA 2019)...

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May 8, 20196 min read

The Odyssey, and Going Home ("Nostos")

One of the great joys of living near Stanford University is access to many outstanding events that are open to the community. One such...

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