Since then, I have taken trips to India every few years. Some of them have been timed before or after key milestones (before or after college, medical school, residency, etc.).
My visits as a teenager and adult have resulted in deeper emotional connections with relatives. It is my goal to bridge the cultural divide, though it [...]

In my visit at age 12, I took my role as self-appointed travel journalist for my 6th grade teacher, my friends, and father quite seriously. My letters to them are filled with rich details and descriptions of farm life, wedding ceremonies, holidays, and rituals. Many of the things I experienced were so new, and extra [...]

My next encounter was at age nine. Here is an excerpt, written in my newly acquired cursive handwriting, from one of my blue aerogramme letters (yes, we actually wrote paper letters back then!) to my Dad who couldn’t take as much time off from work as was needed for the long trip so he was [...]

I was one of these kids, traveling on summer vacations to my parents’ small rural villages in Tamil Nadu, India, every few years. Below, I chronicle my trips in developmental stages, and perhaps pediatricians and parents will be able to relate to some of their own patients/children’s perspectives in my story.
My first contact with India, [...]

Summer Vacation India: An Indian-American Pediatrician’s Personal Developmental Perspective
In the last few months many Indian-American children walked, crawled, or got carried onto Singapore Airlines or an Air India plane, thus starting a time honored- tradition of returning to India to meet and become acquainted with their relatives. This tradition started in earnest in the 1960’s [...]