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 India, there are real consequences to inattention; drivers who jeopardize pedestrians can be lynched on the spot.

Ancestral habits of mind can be constricting; they also confer one's individuality.

I am an American, not an Asian-American. My rejection of hyphenation has been called race treachery, but it is really a demand that America deliver the promises of its dream to all its citizens equally.

The traveler feels at home everywhere, because she is never at home anywhere.

What was the function of poetry if not to improve the petty, cautious minds of evasive children?

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.