Lakshmi Iyer's Blog, page 41
November 7, 2018
Slice Of Life: Watching Children Grow
Laddu stands in front of me, her body leaner, taller than I thought. I liberally apply a moisturizer to her skin that drinks it in. Her long hair is in braids, one on either side of her face. The baby fat is melting away leaving in place a little girl who is growing way too […]
October 25, 2018
Open Adoption: Real Lives. Real Impacts.
My daughter, all of nine and I are standing, facing each other. I hold a tube of cucumber face pack and apply the goo in an even layer all over her face. I avoid her fine blond hair, so pale that I have to look carefully to even see it. Up close, her face is […]
October 22, 2018
Royal Ramblings
Ammu is curled up in a ball at the end of the sofa. Laddu and Pattu are tossing a balloon between them using their cheap plastic wands as bats to hit the balloon. “We are playing royal tennis,” Laddu tells me as I pass them to reach Ammu. I stroke Ammu’s forehead, gathering her body […]
October 15, 2018
How To Make A Family
In June this year, I workshopped a piece at the Yale Writers’ Workshop. While this piece is a rehash of a story I have recounted many times on the blog, this was an experiment trying to write in the second person. The piece went live on Mutha Magazine today. I am happy to hear from […]
October 14, 2018
Adoption: Complex, Nuanced, Heavy
The music of my teenage fills my ears as I walk and I feel a sense of being cocooned. I hum along with numbers I can remember. The beauty of Urdu washes over me and I am happy. The way one is happy for no reason. Last night, I sat on a two-seater sofa with […]
October 7, 2018
All My Life In One Walk
I start off slow, picking up speed as I scale the gentle slopes leading away from home. The music is gentle starting with Ed Sheeran’s Perfect. I imagine the sawdust on my bare feet, leaning into broad shoulders and slow dancing. Things that would never happen in real life. I turn the bend and my […]
October 4, 2018
Why Homework?
The lights are on at the breakfast table and the dining table. I walk, swinging my arms, hoping my iWatch will count the strides toward exercise minutes. Laddu ambles behind me clicking her flashlight on and off to illuminate what she considers dark corners of the house. Ammu is bent over her homework, way past […]
October 3, 2018
Three Identical Strangers: Thoughts And Angst
Spoiler Alert. I highly recommend you watch the movie before reading I watched the trailer for Three Identical Strangers end of June this year. I was fascinated. Not just because this was a story of adoption but because it seemed too incredible to be true. The dramatic music, the reenactments and the hints of something […]
October 1, 2018
Open Adoption Goes Both Ways
“I am bored!” The words seem to resound, bounce off the walls of our home over the weekend. If they were not out biking or prone on the sofa, eyes glazed over, watching something inane on the television, they start like cicadas, a lone voice, growing, amplifying into a resonant chorus until I either yell […]
September 28, 2018
Stay Angry. Stay Mad. VOTE
If like me, you watched horrified yesterday as a man nominated to the highest court in the country ranted and raved. If like me, you wondered why was his nomination was not delayed to give time to probe the accusations, this is what I want to say to you: Register to vote if you have […]
