Raman reveals the struggle involved in changing nations and keeping heart; she shows us that no culture is isolated from the universal truths of love and loss.-Sylvia E. Halloran, editor, poet, and winner of Barnes and Noble's Independent Thinking Essay Contest
In this heartfelt collection of twenty-two stories, a mother and daughter slowly begin to understand their different perspectives on life, love, and happiness.
Maya has sacrificed much happiness for her daughter, Jeena. She left India to immigrate to America with her diplomat husband and tried to embrace her new country with open arms. And when tragedy strikes, she strives to make a stable life for her daughter.
Jeena, who straddles the divide of cultural displacement, struggles to reconcile the more common American displays of affection with her traditional mother's seemingly strict and cold nature. Maybe, Jeena stubbornly thinks, if her mother had kissed her father more, he wouldn't have left for dangerous places. But Jeena eventually begins to recognize the small, subtle ways her mother made her affection known.
Journey forward and back through the years as Maya and Jeena navigate love, loss, and resolution. It will take two open hearts for these women to close the gap wrought by heritage.
About the Author: Writer, technologist, and unabashed geek Neerja Raman has performed university research, programmed at small start-ups, and worked as a manager at large corporations. She received her MS in chemistry from SUNY Stony Brook and her MSc from Delhi University. Raman has also been inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.
Raman's short fiction has been published in various periodicals, and she received an honorable mention in the Katha Fiction Contest (2017) for her short story "Garden of People." She is also the author of short essays and other nonfiction, as well as The Practice and Philosophy of Decision Making: A Seven Step Spiritual Guide, available on Amazon.
Now retired, Raman is a distinguished visiting scholar at Stanford University. When not working, Raman is an avid hiker and can often be found gardening, advocating for women in STEM, or being politically and socially active in women-empowerment groups.
