Nonfiction/Personal Essays

‘Ash’ is not my ‘white name,’ I swear!Much ado about three letters that run soul-deep… By Ashwini Gangal Few days ago, I responded to an email, getting back to a book publicist in New York City with my address so that she could dash off a galley to me next month. “Dear Cindy,” it began.

H4 Visa and the Shock of Migration – a personal account by Ashwini Gangal“The DSM should have a separate classification for migration related depressive states. At some level, you’re grieving for the life you left behind…”

Diaspora Stories: Making love to chai with words...by Ashwini GangalDoes such a thing as a perfect cup of chai even exist outside our imagination? As I write this piece, I have a steaming cup of chai within reach. Sadly, it’s smack in the middle of average and awful. I made it myself. It is better than chai tea latte but let’s not go there.

The Migratory Melancholia of the ‘Dependent Spouse’ | KQEDAn H4 visa holder in the South Bay reports from the emotional trenches of modern day immigration.

Stories from the Diaspora: So this is what being a ‘washerman’s dog’ feels like, huh? ~ by Ashwini GangalMy first trip back to Mumbai after moving to California a year ago, helped me define the newfound plurality of my immigrant identity. Just before I sat down to write this, a quasi-column on my thoughts about my first trip back to India after having spent a year away, I slathered Parachute coconut oil all over my parched face, the only efficacious remedy for the weird dryness of California. This sort of grease-fest in a humid place like Mumbai, my home for over three and a half decades, is unthinkable.

Brown Gaze: The silent language of Indian strangers in an adopted countryWhat happens when two Indians make accidental eye contact in America? Nothing... everything. This is a personal account of what went through my mind one winter’s evening, as I took a walk along Castro Street, Mountain View, earlier this year. But first, here’s a quick context of my station in life: This was less than six months after moving to the Bay.

A Mumbai Girl Finds Her Yash Chopra Moment At SFO International AirportMy tryst with a dating app swept me up from Mumbai on the West Coast of India and tossed me on the West Coast of America.

A Visa-Seeking Atheist Locks Eyes With Mahalakshmi Awaiting a U.S. visa, Ashwini Gangal, a non-believer, found herself in the presence of a “live” Goddess Mahalaxmi. Or did she?

A Writer Reclaims Her Stripes With 100 Bylines In The BayA former editor in India, Ashwini Gangal rediscovers her writer’s muscle as she turns freelance reporter in the U.S. and racks up bylines.

‘Navigate’ Is an Overused MetaphorBy Ashwini Gangal In the 15th century, Italian merchant Amerigo Vespucci undertook many a voyage—navigating rough seas for months, sometimes years, between Europe and the New World. And there’s nothing I would change about that sentence.

The Transformative Magic Of The Japanese OnsenOn a recent trip to Japan, a Bay Area resident experienced her first life-changing public bath in a hot spring onsen in Tokyo.

Are You An Expat Or An Immigrant?“Expat” and “immigrant” are loaded words with connotations far beyond their standard dictionary definitions, discovers Ashwini Gangal

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