I Feel Empowered To Be

I Had Never Walked On The Street Alone When I Was Growing Up In Calcutta, Up To Age 20. I Had Never Handled Money. You Know, There Was Always A Couple Of Bodyguards Behind Me, Who Took Care If I Wanted... I Needed Pencils For School, I Needed A Notebook, They Were The Ones Who Were Taking Out The Money. I Was Constantly Guarded.

I Feel Empowered To Be A Different Kind Of Writer. The Longer I Stay Here, The More Light Filters Into My Work. I Feel Very American. I Belong.

In Other Words, My Literary Agenda Begins By Acknowledging That America Has Transformed Me. It Does Not End Until I Show How I (and The Hundreds Of Thousands Like Me) Have Transformed America.

In Hindu Societies, Especially Overprotected Patriarchal Families Like Mine, Daughters Are Not At All Desirable. They Are Trouble. And A Mother Who, As Mine Did, Has Three Daughters, No Sons, Is Supposed To Go And Hang Herself, Kill Herself, Because It Is Such An Unlucky Kind Of Motherhood To Have.

I Am Aware Of Myself As A Four-hundred-year-old Woman, Born In The Captivity Of A Colonial, Pre-industrial Oral Culture And Living Now As A Contemporary New Yorker.