In the era of swiping left and right on dating apps, there are a few stories that make us sigh and wish they were our own — especially on Valentine’s Day. More often than not, these are stories of how our grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles met. Cue: Violins at the top of the mountains in Switzerland. But in all seriousness,  it seems as if, at that time, long-lasting love could be found more easily and couples clicked so feasibly. This Valentine’s Day, get your tissues ready as we share a few jab they met stories of the parents (and grandparents) of some of our brown girls! [Read Mo ..read more

Wedding season is in full swing as the world resets from the coronavirus pandemic that halted mass events for years. Indo Caribbean weddings have rich diversity due to their varying religious and regional intricacies, but are generally large celebrations that require planning, coordination and preparation. Growing up, I was both excited and stunned at the busyness associated with streamlining a multi-day wedding celebration.  [Read Related: 5 Indo-Caribbean Influencers who Will Spruce up Your Newsfeed] The vibrant diaspora of first-generation young adults and their families may look to ve ..read more

Photo by Mary Long via Shutterstock.com Everyone has expectations of who they should be. With the media feeding us images of perfect bodies, personalities and lives, we often find ourselves trying to emulate perfection. The American Dream emerged for this very reason — white picket fences and stable careers as a smiling family out of a tableau waits on the doorstep. For me, my heart comes with expectations. The idea of it being the organ with clarity and giver of life is projected onto me. But when others say “follow your heart,” its purpose falls short. How do I lead with something so reckles ..read more

Photo by CC7 via Shutterstock.com “Love at Last Station” reflects how love changes from a naïve, idealistic passion in our youth to a more mature, permanent quality in a later life stages. This poem encapsulates the pregnant reality of the world: listening to what a girl wants in a relationship is probably more important rather than making bold promises around an uncertain future. [Read Related: The Poetry of Arranged Marriages & Falling in Love] Love at Last Station When I was four-feet tall I faced up at the calm, collected adults Seething in envy, they carried out what happened in stori ..read more

Photo credit: Stephen Jiwanmall He invited me over for dinner and asked me to wear a kurta. We had only been dating for a few weeks, and I was intrigued. I rummaged through my closet and grabbed a beautifully embroidered black kurta my dad got me from Pakistan the year before. I showed up to find him wearing a kurta, too—albeit less flashy than mine. Ironically, out of the two of us, he was the one who had actually been to India. Two months as a Christian missionary. This tall, lanky white Southern man was smiling at me as he led me to the kitchen, where he started apologizing. “I was trying ..read more

“Soft” shows us how we often do not always understand what people are going through, even with our best efforts. Only they, the person with the experience, can wholeheartedly live through it and comprehend it. I wrote “Soft” with a lot of frustration and a hint of anger because I think it’s disingenuous when people say they can completely empathize with someone else. Empathy is deeper than just acknowledgment. And people serve true empathy when they can impart empathy on themselves. Also, “Soft” reflects the pain of not fitting in or growing up with a different personality and upbringing. Pers ..read more

Is Love Poetry or Is Poetry Love? is an ode to love from a hopeless romantic. I never considered myself a poet, so this pamphlet was my first real dive into poetry writing. Throughout the pamphlet, I address the theme of Asian weddings and marriages or rather, the trouble with them. “Arrangements” was inspired by my mother and her arranged marriage. My first and truest picture of love was my parent’s relationship. But the fact that my parent’s love was arranged has always been interesting to me. I sometimes considered how I’d feel if I was in their situation. I explored my mother’s experiences ..read more

Sitting in that coffeeshop, surrounded by my half-forgotten latte, sweatshirt, and notes strewn about, I didn’t expect to date let alone fall in love with the curly mop-headed boy sitting in front of me. It was two months out from me taking an exam that would determine if I could apply to medical school, only four months out from graduation, neither of us knew where we would be the following year, logically- this made absolutely no sense, but of course love doesn’t. The fact that he wasn’t desi didn’t truly seem to matter to me. At least consciously and initially, I didn’t think about cultural ..read more

Photo Source: Shutterstock At some point in marriage, everyone stops having sex. I mean, everyone. At least that’s what my husband told me when I tried to leave him after 17 years of marriage because the sexual pressure was too much for me. This came after 17 years of hearing from him how “normal” couples were intimate more than once a week and how I was violating some wives’ rules of conduct by not being part of that statistic. It was his bargaining chip to save our marriage by offering me a platonic marriage. What was a platonic marriage, anyway? Isn’t a platonic marriage just a co-parenting ..read more

From right to left: Ami and Veeral, saahil and Matthew, Amit and Aditya and Sachin and Nikita | Artwork by Aishwarya Sukesh When Shakespeare wrote, “the course of true love never did run smooth” in ‘A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,’ I wonder if he ever considered the idea of pandemic relationships and even a pandemic Valentine’s Day? The past year has presented to us unprecedented challenges and not only in a socio-political and economic sense. Our personal lives were disrupted and turned upside down with many moving back home, moving in with a new partner, and adjusting to this new sense of norma ..read more