My maternal grandmother, Namagiri Ammal lives in my heart everyday. We all called her ‘Pati’ or grandma in colloquial Tamil, a language spoken in southern India. She embodied generosity, candor, feminism and a fierce love of family, especially her grandchildren! I grew up listening to her stories derived from the great Indian epic - The Ramayana.

Cross-country drive and exploration of landscapes of the USA. From Santa Clara to Flagstaff, Arizona. On to Albuquerque, New Mexico. And then to Amarillo, Texas, a city in the Texas panhandle. From Texas to Port Charles, Louisiana and then via Mississippi and Georgia to Naples, Florida.