Where it began

It began before I was born. I have always been struggling with defining who I am and how I got where I am.My story like many stories is one of struggle. It is a struggle in the battle for freedoms. Freedom from patriarchy, freedom from repression, from exploitation, freedom from lack of expectation and opportunities.

I was born to two Indian parents in Oct 30 , 1981 in New Delhi , India.

My mother left India after divorcing my father when she was 21 . She was young, hopeful, and in search of a better life for herself and her daughter. She had a dream of following her potential and letting go of the traditional societal limitations imposed on her as a single parent in India. For the next few years I would live in Ethiopia. My aunt, (my mother's older sister) had married a diplomat. A Sudanese man working with UNICEF in Ethiopia. This is where I would spend the the next 3 years.

This is where it began for me. This is where I started to abstractly think about identity, development, injustice and poverty. Seeing my uncle , Abdulla on assignments. Going with my family to villages to hand out food and clothes. This is where I would first learn that poverty is man-made. It is not a natural phenomenon.

This is not the only experience, but this is one of the most formitave that I can identify as what planted the roots in my journey to becoming a global-citizen.