Rishima’s Blog
This is me
Rishima’s Blog not only serves as a forum to encourage discourse about the most current issues and new stories of the day, but also as a forum to share my human experience.
Family - I was born in India’s bustling capital city of New Delhi at a time of great change. The city and I in a way shared some learnings in my first few years! By one estimate, the National Capital Region grew by almost 25% over the decade between 2001-2011. I couldn’t stick around for all of that, but more on that later.
Household - My mom, grandmother and grandfather took care of me in the initial years. My mom traveled to the States when I was a little under 1, to further her education, establish herself and support me. How difficult it must have been for my grandparents to bring up an infant from 11 months old to a 6 years old child; only a mother can understand. My difficult feed time at night was at 2am and 5am, and the grandparents relied on their mental alarm clock. I perceive them as definition of affection, caring and compassion. My next 6 years were spent primarily with my grandparents – my doting nani whose care and fabulous cooking made me a food connoisseur of sorts at a very early age, and my pilot nanu, with whom I got access to corners of the world that Presidents can only wish for. I just wish I was little older to remember more of that time; now I have to reconstruct memories through photos of the time.
Education - I learned everything that folks my age do. I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to observe and learn what most young people don’t ever get to this extent – I experienced how your mother’s mother would bring you up if she had had the chance. For those who missed out, in short, it’s the only white glove way of being brought up! Their experience and age I guess came through not only in the form of undivided attention and pampering, but also when it came to discipline and instilling in me a global mindset, values and virtues that have served me so well.
I joined my mother when I was in the 1st grade, with 2020 marking a decade since my arrival to America. This was a significant change of environment for me in the form of a new school, new surroundings and just everything…new. While I had all the guidance I needed at home, I was also lucky to have found great support in some of the faculty who let me bring myself to school every day. Somewhere along the way, I developed a voracious appetite and curiosity for books…on any topic. Mystery books, history books, fiction or non, famous or obscure…I gorged on them all, although I remained quite selective when it came to fiction. It took over two years for my friends to convince me to try Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, however, once I read the first line, I was hooked like so many readers before myself and I just could not put it down. Along with developing slightly bibliophilic tendencies, I realized in me a great passion for the humanities. In fact, my blog truly took off because of my choice of the 8th grade English Language Arts class project, for which I sought to advocate for Girls’ Education in India. My very first blog article which concerned nuclear medicine was published in September of 2017. Following this very first article, I took a long sabbatical before I truly began contributing to the blog, in part due to being occupied with my advocacy project about girl’s education.
Over the past two years, my blog has continued to expand and grow more diverse as I have broadened my horizons. My blog remains a platform for me to express my opinions and to learn more about the world around me in the process.
In many ways, my blog is a reflection of who I am as a person. It reflects the environment that I am growing up in. The stories and experiences that remain in my mind and echo in my ears are the ones that I want other readers to learn about as well. I am only a teenager, but I believe in the power of language; I believe in the power of not only my words, but your words as well, and that’s why I also request you to support me, to stop the Post Office from referring to the 25% of Americans with disabilities as Handicapped.
Words matter to us as we are human.
New Delhi is a city of 27 million people and adds 700 thousand people every year...that's more new people who migrate to and call New Delhi their new home each year, than the entire population of the State of Colorado!
There is much talk about how this migration is fueled by and also fuels new opportunities, greater employment, improved education and financial and generational progress.
The story less heard though is the one about the impact of this migration on families...how families are separated and broken apart; the emotional toll it takes on parents, siblings and also how it is changing the dynamics of old age, forcing an aging population to become more self-reliant in an environment where joint families and home based care has been the norm for centuries.
This is not just about New Delhi; but rather a story that can be seen repeated all over the world. The world has been a migrant cauldron and that hasn't changed in the last 500 mm years since the birth of humanity. Human beings around the world have very similar needs and thus make very similar choices. The migrant crisis in Africa has seen individuals travel across the treacherous Sahara and the Mediterranean in search of opportunity and peace. We have seen European cities inundated with refugees who are fleeing war and famine, and the European populace ill-equipped to deal with the influx of immigrants. The South American populace's aspirations of opportunity and peace don't differ much either.
Are our governments prepared to manage and support our emerging and evolving society? The migration and concentration of the young and abled in metropolis' leaves a deficit of much needed support structures in the other parts.
If we don't pursue solutions that provide support to smaller towns to reinvigorate and reaffirm, I see the emergence and development of ghost towns...and places with no future, eventually die.
The mass migration is the result of deeply entrenched problems that have only aggrandized over time. Although we need long term strategy to solve the issues responsible for causing this mass immigration in the first place, we must also adapt on an individual level to act with compassion and empathy. The struggles faced by immigrants in their search for opportunity are very real, but so are the extraordinary individuals who have risen to meet the challenge. The kindness shown by those who opened their homes to refugees in Europe as governments struggled to adapt, the kindness shown by the ones who donated supplies for detained immigrants at the U.S Mexico border cannot go unnoticed. Their kindness and profound impact shows the power of the individual.
I aspire with your support, to not only highlight many such challenges faced by our society but also the many acts of kindness and innovative solutions put forth by bright minds to remediate unfortunate circumstances across different regions of the world.
Rishima