Lakshmi Iyer's Blog, page 5

Finding Solace: Writing Through Political Disappointment

Tuesday, November 12 reads the home screen of my phone. I feel sucker punched knowing it has been a week since the election and, we have already settled into a new normal. None of this is surprising yet, I feel a sense of loss I can’t articulate. In the wake of the election results becoming…

Letters To My Daughters: I Am Sorry

Dear Ammu, Pattu and, Laddu, It is November 7th 2024. I am sorry kanmanis. I am truly sorry. I wish I was there at home, to sit, sift and sort through this incredible moment in history with the three of you. I say incredible not because I think it is great that we will have…

Dark Night Of The Soul

I am broken. I am not surprised or even shocked by the election results. I definitely wanted, hoped, prayed for a Harris Walz victory. What I feel today is not the devastation I felt in 2016 after Clinton lost. I was blindsided then. Today, it felt like my worst fears came true. I watched the…

My Bora Hued Bantan Boys

Purple. That’s the color of my love for my bora hued bangtan boys. They entered my life nonchalantly, in shades of lavender and lilac. Mild. Unassuming. I sang along their corny lyrics to Butter with my then tweens and seven-year-old. They were passing clouds then, periwinkle blips in my otherwise drab existence. I discovered V,…

Embracing Uncertainty in Writing and Life

The jeep bounces on bumpy roads and, I jiggle along, moving in sync with each bump and jump. I feel free, unfettered from all that has bound me thus far. It has been days since I called in to check on my little girls. It has been days since I caught up on the five…

Preserving Individual Joy

The past Tuesday, a woman I have met a few times and connect with over a common love for Korean shows and music messaged me to commiserate on not being unable to go to a Seventeen concert because we had not thought it possible. One thing led to another and by mid-afternoon I had overpriced…

Hindsight – A Book Review

I haven’t written in a long time for reasons I will post about in another blog. Today I want to talk about a great book I read by Lakshmi Iyer called… Hindsight – A Book Review

Nostalgia: Trapped In A Bottle

I am chatting with Amma on the phone, my hands moving out of force of habit. I pull the heavy bottomed sauté pan, turn the gas stove on, tap the rim every few seconds to test how hot the pan is. Even as I do this on auto pilot, my brain is thinking of the…

Woman In Flux

At a recent gathering at a friend’s house, I sat at a table with two people I had not met before. As introductions go, I leaned into my corporate identity first. Over the course of the evening, references to astrology, interest in k-culture, reading and, writing came up. Politics dominated the evening. I left sated…

Embracing Namjooning: A Joyful Literary Journey

It’s out, the first issue of Literary Namjooning. A few months ago, Hema of Mixed Bag reached out to Melissa and I asking if we would be interested in curating a selection of pieces that centered the act of namjooning. As ARMY and as someone who has grown to idolize Kim Namjoon, this was right…