Kalpana Mohan

Kalpana Mohan
Location
Saratoga, California, USA
Birthday
October 14
Bio
Freelance writer in CA www.kalpanamohan.org kalpanamohan.typepad.com Member, Left Coast Writers

Kalpana Mohan's Links

Salon.com
OCTOBER 29, 2009 12:23AM

Ex-Letterman Writer and Me

 

When a male boss spreads himself under the sheets with female colleagues (and these women are excelling for reasons everyone–including the office janitor–can explain), should the underlings in the group (1) tut-tut in annoyance, gnash their teeth and try to do their job anyway, (2)Read full post »

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009 8:49PM

Why do we need a social life?

Why do we need a social life?

Bangkok, Raji Wedding_0099









Some life questions like “Why do we need toilet tissue?” or “Why must you brush your teeth every morning?” don’t come up at all in daily conversation because the answers are self-evident. The subject

Read full post »
JULY 2, 2009 8:58PM

Gay Times in India


Today, as I read about the Indian court decriminalizing consensual gay sex, I was reminded of a conversation between my aunt and me in 1986.  My aunt, then about 55, was visiting me in the Bay Area.

 “What’s all this homosexuality-kemosexuality business? I think there’s

Read full post »
MAY 10, 2009 3:55PM

A Smell called Mother

 

 Mother's Day gift from my daughter: an Edible fruit arrangement

Smell can be a powerful sense. All mothers smell good, without exception.

The loss of my mother isn’t in the voice I do not hear anymore when I call home. It isn’t so much in the small gossips and the petty he-dids and she-dids that only a mother willRead full post »

Editor’s Pick
MARCH 30, 2009 2:13PM

The Brown Frown: So Where’s your kid going to College?

 images-1

"I wanted to ask you for your thoughts,” says an Indian-American friend whose family is devastated by the state college admissions results last Friday. “My child didn’t make UC Berkeley or UCLA.  But he has top grades.”

  “I know yo… Read full post »

MARCH 26, 2009 1:33PM

July in India's Chennai

 

Sari shop 

July in Chennai, India, is wet and dry. First the monsoons pound the ground until you can’t tell feces apart from sandalwood paste on the roads of old Triplicane by Marina Beach. Then, about the middle of theRead full post »


Grand Case Beach Club_0334

Our family wanted to savor the last bit of summer sun and fun before the schools reopened.  We signed up early when a friend wondered if we wanted to be part of an eighteen family camping bash under the redwoods at Big Sur’s Pfeiffer State Park.  Finally, our

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Images 

For years I’d led the double life, slogging as a cubicle slave by day, writing software for a huge company and devouring the Writer’s Market by night. My colleagues told me I needed to be in the writing world. They saved my emails. Even I could tell I/
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When I happened upon what a big huff and a puff the New York Times made this morning about nude hiking in the Swiss Alps I felt denuded, sheared, of my veneer of innocence much like sheep in Auckland. If Arab-Americans fainted at the sight of two pale rumps against the… Read full post »

MARCH 13, 2009 12:17PM

Springing into March

                   He turned 15
 
  
My sweet birthday boy
At 4, he wanted to take the long cut home (“I don’t like short cuts”)
God gave me a bookmonster when I prayed for a bookworm.
Then Crockett Johnson’sRead full post »
Editor’s Pick
MARCH 12, 2009 2:53AM

Cooking for Dad

 

 Kalpana and her dad at Cherai Beach in Parur, Kerala

“So, dad, how do you grade my Spinach Kootu?”

Dad shut his eyes and pondered the question with the gravity of a professor on a Ph. D. defense committee.

To make this traditional South Indian dish for my dad, I picked baby spinach at the local farmer’s markeRead full post »

MARCH 10, 2009 6:44PM

All Aboard the Alleppey Express

 

 Coconut groves near my ancestral home in Parur, Kerala
 
 

I was squatting over an Indian style toilet in a third class compartment on a train hurtling through South India.  The toilet was a stained stainless steel hole in the ground.  It was entirely possible that my Fallopian tubes could be sucked awayRead full post »

 Hawaii Around Kauai 12-2005_26

 

“So you don’t consider yourself to be Asian? What are you then?”

 The gentleman was puzzled. He was Chinese-American and he was reflecting upon how our high school’s badminton team was made up solely of Asians. My son had already mentioned to me thatRead full post »

FEBRUARY 27, 2009 2:05AM

Stained, by Coffee

Coffee doesn’t just stain my blouse. It stains my soul.

 Coffee addicts more than power. And the absolute best coffee corrupts so absolutely  that it has been the reason I went to bed ecstatic at night so I could get up the next morning to a mind-blowing cup. The… Read full post »

FEBRUARY 26, 2009 10:47PM

Aladdin's Perfect Genie

 

 

Kauai Hindu Temple 12-2005_04

 

My father, my sister and I are all confused about Vinayagam’s place in our new, reorganized family of three. Or four? We need him - at a moment’s notice - when we need him. But when we don’t want him around, we wish him to disappear into theRead full post »

Editor’s Pick
FEBRUARY 23, 2009 9:21PM

Why Topdog Indians couldn’t make Slumdog Millionaire


A.  They don’t want to talk about poverty

B.  They can’t fit in 4 song/dance numbers

C.  No Indian idol will make a fine Slumdog

D.  All of the above

In the opening chase scene of  Danny Boyle’s SlumdogRead full post »