Prasanta's January 2022 Newsletter

Prasanta Verma

Jan 29, 2022

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Chai Chat
January 2022 Edition

In this issue…

1. A Special Birthday: Celebrating a special birthday with old photos from India of my mom. 2. My Word for 2022: Do you have a word of the year? For the first time, I do.

3. Books, Books, Books: Sharing my list of books read in 2021 and what I’m reading this month. What are you reading? 4. Three Easy Tips to Increase Cultural Awareness: I share a few simple, easy tips to increase cultural awareness and sensitivity. 5. Bonus! Free Writing Prompts: I was honored to team up with several other writers and one of them put together a beautiful free resource of writing prompts for you to jumpstart your creative writing projects. Plus the regular features of a poem, what’s popular on social media—and a special announcement coming next month!

A Special Birthday (a Very Brief Immigrant Story)

My mother celebrated a special birthday recently! The photo on the left is in her wedding sari, which was pink.

The photo on the right was when she was young also, and originally black and white and then colorized. Most of the photos from that time in India were black and white photos, and there aren’t too many, so the few ones we have are precious.

My parents immigrated from India when I was just one year old. My sister was born one month after they landed on the shores of New Jersey. My mom was at home in an apartment with me, at 15 months, and a newborn, and didn’t speak English, and didn’t know anyone.

My father went to work all day, and my mom was at home in a new country, with no car, no friends, and two babies. How would you survive? What would you do? Such is the story of many immigrants who come with nothing and build a new life. My parents eventually bought a car and met people and made friends--one friend she is still in touch with today. There’s so much I can learn about resilience from my parents and what they went through.

My mom was always there when I was growing up, and was there when each of my kids was born. Mom spent many weeks with us, helping us. We have so many wonderful memories. And now, I am collecting the stories of her life and childhood and her ancestors.

So many years later now, my parents have worked hard and done their best for their children. Here I am. I’m grateful. And now we celebrate a birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!

My Word for 2022

Do you choose a word for the year? I’ve never done it myself, though I’ve read other folks’ words and know that others do this. It was a new endeavor for me.

So without further ado, here’s my word for 2022: EXPAND

I’m still figuring out how to fully engage with this word. I’m hoping to orient myself around this word during the year, asking myself questions such as:

How can I expand my perspective
How can I expand margin in my life for creative pursuits
How can I expand my knowledge and thinking in specific areas
In what ways do I need to expand my thinking and perspective?
How can I grow in kindness, love, understanding, peace, joy? Which areas need the most to expand?
In what areas do I need to expand my time (and that necessitates shrinking in other areas)

I hope to be intentional with this word as I go about this next year. What needs to expand? (Let’s hope it’s not my waistline, haha!)

Do you have a word for the year? If so, I’d love to know what it is! Send me a message or email. : )

Books, Books, Books!

In 2021, I read at least 29 books. There are a few more that I may have missed, such as a couple in the Louise Penny Inspector Gamache series, but this is most of them. I immensely enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow, Braiding Sweetgrass, The Girl With Seven Names, Steeped in Stories, World of Wonders, Brown Girl Dreaming, Prayer in the Night, and my #1 favorite of the year, a book that I’d put on one of my top reads of all time, is Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. If you want to see my entire 2021 list, click here.

With books, I find my list s constantly growing, and there is never enough time. But, we do what we can do. So far in January 2022, I’ve read the following:

A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Midnight Library
Sugar Birds
Born a Crime

I am currently reading (I typically read several books at the same time):

The Artist’s Way (this is a re-read)
Atomic Habits (audiobook)
My Grandmother’s Hands
The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty and Community

How to Increase Cultural Awareness - Three Easy Steps

Read books written by authors of color and people different from you
Listen to podcasts by people of color and people different from you
Follow people of color on social media and people different from you

I made a deliberate decision a few years ago to begin reading more books by writers of color. It’s helped inform my thinking, and I’ve learned so much reading from people different than myself.

I started following more people of color on social media, and my feed was incredibly transformed in a positive way. I’m listening to podcasts by people of color, and I’ve enjoyed listening to many interesting stories and experiences, and learning from many different people.

All of these have informed and revitalized my thinking, increased my awareness, and helped me to learn form others. They are changing me—and for the better, in good ways. I’m grateful. I’m learning and growing, expanding my knowledge and growing in cultural awareness and understanding.

We don’t know what we don’t know. There was much I didn’t know. But we start where we are, and when we know, we can seek to be peacemakers and bridge builders. Establishing a posture of learning is a beginning step. It’s a step we all can take.

Have you taken any of the above steps? If so, which one(s)? If you have not, which of the above can you take in the coming year? Connect with me and let me know what resonates with you. If you do these things, I guarantee your perspective will change.

Bonus for subscribers: Writing Prompts Booklet

My writing friend, Charity Singleton Craig, put together a beautiful booklet of writing prompts and tips by several talented and published writers and authors. She very graciously asked me to contribute and I’m honored to be included in the lovely company of those in this booklet. We share writing prompts and ideas, and what inspires us. It’s a free bonus resource for you, as a regular subscriber! Click HERE or on the photo below to access this free resource, and then let me know if you used any of the prompts!

Poem: Burning the Old Year
by Naomi Shihab Nye

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,
lists of vegetables, partial poems.
Orange swirling flame of days,
so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,
an absence of shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.
I begin agin with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,
only the things I didn’t do
crackle after the blazing dies.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48597/burning-the-old-year

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Photos above I took on the shores of Lake Michigan a year ago, January 2021.

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Until next month’s Chai Chat!

Make it a lovely one,

Prasanta

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