Another PhD student told me, in the spring before I began my doctoral program, that my experiences before grad school would not be validated/important...(1/6)

...To the contrary. I know now, more than ever before, that I am the product of all the people who came before me, my family, my communities, my ancestors...(2/6)

...I come from Saturdays with my mom and Ba frying food for the Gujarati aunties and uncles coming over for dinner ; making બાધા; packing Oreo cookies and Kool-Aid packets for the cousins in India; looking at the moon through a roti for પોષી પૂનમ; aerograms from Kenya...(3/6)

...Changing from jeans and sneakers into pijama kurta in the locker room of the local high school for the Diwali celebration; wearing a red tilak on my forehead with dried rice while shopping for groceries at HEB while the checkout lady stares; reading Archie comics.. (4/6)

...and listening to Kylie Minogue on the walkman on 48 hour Howrah Express from Bombay to Calcutta; making all the 5th graders get the Measles vaccine because I brought it back from India; touching my elders feet on my birthday and graduation; Gujarati lesson from my Ba... (5/6)

...snacking on Parle-G biscuits; singing the aarti at Navaratri and eating prasad...these are the symbolic and cultural linkages to where my family came from and that I embody with me today. That's where the knowledge that matters for me comes from. (6/6)