The San Francisco Bay Area is often referred to as a salad bowl when it comes to how immigrants and their children engage with American culture and society. Which parts of our cultural identity we keep and which parts we shed is a daily negotiation.
CatchLight Local Fellow, Sree Sripathy, set out to explore this dynamic with an open call for participants to be interviewed and have their portraits made. The resulting series, We Belong, is a collaboration between India Currents and the CatchLight Local Visual Desk that features a community member or family twice monthly.
The Couple That Grows Together
📍 LOS ALTOS, CA
Viggy (right) and Manjula Mokkarala walk in the vineyard where they grow Pinot Noir grapes behind their Los Altos Hills home on February 7, 2023. The gardening couple became winemakers not to sell wine, but rather to gift it to friends and family. “We love wine, and we like growing things,” said Manjula. “So we thought that’d be a good combination.” Read more »
The Best of Both Worlds
📍 Fremont, CA
Tanya Gupta was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a recent college graduate in computer science. She is also an anchor and reporter for Sitaarre TV and loves singing Bollywood music. “I was lucky to be raised in a way where my parents never forced the Indian culture on me,” said Gupta. “I got to choose what I wanted to see in Indian culture and what I got to take from Western culture. I never felt conflicted.” Read more »
Dancing in Her Father’s Footsteps
📍 SAN RAFAEL, CA
Saadhvi Das, 10, holds a commemorative plate given to her late father, legendary kathak dancer, Pandit Chitresh Das. She says she feels closer to her father when holding the plate. Saadhvi is learning kathak at the Chitresh Das Institute, where her mother, Celine Schein Das, serves as executive director. “I would like to try and dance as long as I can,” says Saadhvi. “And I want to learn more about my history and about India itself.”
FINAL FRAME
📍 lIVERMORE, CA
Chief priest Pandit Sampath Sridharan throws sanctified water in the air on the final day of the Maha Kumbabhishekam at the Shiva-Vishnu Temple in Livermore, California. The Maha Kumbhabhishekam, which happens once every 12 years, is a set of rituals performed over a five-day period to restore and reset the energy of the temple. This month, we’re excited to share some of our favorite photos from Sree Sripathy’s local coverage for India Currents.
BANNER IMAGE:
Natasha Kehimkar (center right) stands in front of her Foster City, California, home with daughter Sela, husband Derek, son Zev, and their dog Roti on May 29, 2023. Natasha comes from a family of Indian Bene Israel Jews. Her husband Derek converted to Judaism and they’ve raised both their children, originally from South Korea, in the Indian Jewish tradition.