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The Old Lighthouse of Pondicherry
Original essay by Samantha Rajaram. Like other colonial towns, the architecture of Pondicherry, India, bears the imprint of its co- lonial past. The old lighthouse is such an exam- ple. Located close to the beach promenade, the lighthouse has a white, fluted tower with a lantern and gallery rising from the circular keeper’s house. A modest structure of only 27 meters (89 feet), it began operation in 1836 and was built by the engineer L. Guerre, known then as “the colonial engineer” for bringing French architecture into various colo- nies. The lighthouse was later modified—its rectangular base replaced by a circular structure in 1886 and a second story added thereafter.…
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Is This America?
(This is an archived copy of an essay that was originally published here at India Currents magazine.) Imagine you are a green card holder traveling frequently between the U.S. and your native country. Perhaps you seek cheaper medical treatment in your native country and return for medical visits. Or perhaps you are elderly and have relatives still living in your birth country, but the travel exhausts you, so you stay overseas for longer periods of time. But you’ve traveled this way without incident for years. Until now. On one routine trip back, you arrive at the passport counter and an official from Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) tells you to…
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In Defense of Sudden Outsiders
(This is an archived copy of an essay originally published here at India Currents magazine.) In the past week, I have been thinking about my childhood trips to India. The jet lag—the surreal feeling of leaving one country and waking up in another. Upon returning to the United States, my sister and I would stay up all night until my father took us to McDonald’s at 5 a.m. for breakfast (pancakes, sausage and scrambled eggs). After breakfast, we would go grocery shopping. There were never any lines at 7 a.m. Something in that memory of America died within me. Assailed by news stories of executive orders banning Muslims, building a…