Prasanta's February 2022 Newsletter

Feb 28, 2022

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Chai Chat
February 2022 Edition

In this issue…

1. Chai Chats: Conversations on Identity, Belonging, Culture, Crossing Borders 2. Resources for Following the Invasion of Ukraine: A link with resources and a poem by Ukrainian Poet Ilya Kaminsky

3. We All Deserve to Be Safe: How to Talk to My Daughter About Violence Against Asian Women? 4. What Min Jin Lee Wants Us to See: The author of Pachinko shares her research process and memories of arriving in America 5. Interesting Links Found Around the Web: An assortment of interesting links found around the web Plus My Shortcut Coconut Chicken Curry with Vegetables Recipe and Popular on Social Media

Chai Chats: Conversations on Identity, Belonging, Culture, Crossing Borders

This month was the first edition of Chai Chats: Stories of Migration, Culture, and Belonging on Instagram Live! I’m starting a new series with listening to guests share their stories and I’m so excited to share these conversations with you.

My first guest was this past Thursday, and I had the honor and privilege of speaking with an author I admire and who award-winning author Mitali Perkins.

We talked about her story, being born in Calcutta (and her claim to fame when she was born. : ) You’ll never guess what that is! Plus, Mitali shares something special with us, her “dak naam”, which is a private nickname shared in Bengali households. You can listen in to her story here.

Each month, I highlight a different person and their story. If you’ve ever found yourself in a new situation, felt left out (we all have, right?), moved to a new place, or you have a multicultural or multiethnic background, then you’ll identify with these stories. Exciting guests to come! Upcoming episodes are currently scheduled for March 9 and April 4. Please join us!

Resources for Following the Invasion of Ukraine and a Poem

We’re all watching with heartbreak at what is unfolding with Russia invading Ukraine. Click here for a link with some resources that may help.

For this month’s poem, I’m sharing a poem by award-winning Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky titled We Lived Happily During the War. Kaminsky’s family was granted asylum in 1993, and he lost most of his hearing as a young child. You can also listen to his poem read aloud here.

We Lived Happily During the War
By Ilya Kaminsky

And when they bombed other people’s houses, we

protested
but not enough, we opposed them but not

enough. I was
in my bed, around my bed America

was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house.

I took a chair outside and watched the sun.

In the sixth month
of a disastrous reign in the house of money

in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)

lived happily during the war.

We All Deserve to Be Safe

Nicole Chung, contributing writer at The Atlantic, asks the question in her article How do I Talk to My Daughter About Violence Against Asian Women?

Chung writes, “A few nights ago I dreamed that you were leaving home, heading out into the world on your own, and I was panicking because I hadn’t yet warned you about those who might try to harm you. Of course, we have talked many times about being a woman, an Asian woman, in this country and in the world. We have talked about the racial and gender-based violence that so many girls and women and people of color experience. These and other difficult but needful conversations have been ongoing for years, deepening over time, growing as you have; sometimes, you are the one who starts them. In my dream, though, all I felt was the unshakeable fear that, as your mother, I had not done or said enough.” Read the rest of her article here.

What Min Jin Lee Wants Us to See

In last month’s newsletter in ”, I shared that one of the books I read in 2021 was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, an epic, beautiful novel. I heard this rich and engaging podcast with her recently, which encouraged and challenged me.

Furthermore, here is an outstanding article in The New Yorker by Michael Luo, tiled “What Min Jin Lee Wants us to See.” Luo writes, ”Lee’s gift is her ability to write sweeping, magisterial books that take on ponderous political themes––the Korean diasporic experience, the invisibility of marginalized groups in history, the limits of assimilation––and to make their unhurried, quiet intrigues read like thrillers.
Lee describes herself as a late bloomer. She immigrated to the United States from Seoul, at the age of seven. Her family settled in Elmhurst, Queens, and her parents ran a wholesale jewelry store in Manhattan’s Koreatown, where they worked six days a week, until they retired. She attended the Bronx High School of Science, studied history at Yale, and then went to Georgetown Law. After working for two years as a corporate lawyer, she quit, in 1995, and decided to become a novelist.”

Read the rest of this excellent interview here.

Interesting Links Found Around the Web

Next time you’re traveling to a new U.S. city,, and you want some very good Indian food, here’s a list of the 55 Best Indian Restaurants in the U.S. I’ve been to just one of these, IndeBlue in Philly. Have you been to any of these? Hit reply to this e-mail and let me know.

Four-day work week? Um, yes, please! Belgium approves a four-day work week. and this company, founded and run by women in the U.S., changed their policy to implement a four-day work week, and continued to meet demand and deadlines. What are your thoughts about a four-day workweek?

Patti Labelle Tiny Desk Concert. Enough said.

A 27-Year old woman becomes the first woman to visit every country on earth. How’d she do it? Read here.

How many countries have YOU visited? Take this free online quiz here. Which countries are next on your list, if you could go anywhere? I know Covid has put a halt to many travel dreams and plans. But, let’s dream. Hit reply to this email and let me know your results and which places you dream of traveling.

I’ve visited 19, or 9% of the world’s 202 countries. 19 sounds like a good number, but out of 202, I have a long way to go! I’d love to go to many places: revisit places in Europe, and places I haven’t been, such as Iceland, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Korea, Costa Rica, Eastern Europe, and more. Really is there anywhere I don’t want to go? Antarctica. l’ll be ok if I don’t go there. But, almost everywhere else, I’d say yes.

My Shortcut Coconut Chicken Curry With Vegetables Recipe

I often cook my chicken curries by simply tossing in ingredients without measuring, but this time I thought I’d write it all down to remember, especially if it turned out well. :-)

The main “shortcut” in this recipe is using rotisserie chicken instead of thawed chicken breast cut in bite-sized pieces. Of course, you can use chicken if you have some ready, but it just so happens I had a rotisserie chicken I needed to use and I didn’t want to wait for my chicken to thaw, so I improvised.

If you want to turn up the heat in this recipe, simply add more chili powder, or saute a freshly chopped jalapeño or serrano pepper along with the garlic and ginger.

This recipe is Indian style chicken curry but it has a Thai twist with the carrots and bell peppers, along with the coconut milk, even though south Indian chicken curries often use coconut milk, too. I love Thai food, too, so mixing Thai and Indian is DELICIOUS, in my opinion.

Shortcut Coconut Chicken Curry with Vegetables

2 medium yellow onions, chopped
4 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp chicken curry spice
1 cinnamon stick
2-3 cloves
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 inch piece ginger, diced
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 bell peppers, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
1 rotisserie chicken (boned and sliced in bite-sized pieces)*
4 cups chicken stock (or 4 tsp Better than Bouillon** and 4 cups water)
½ can coconut milk
Salt to taste

Mix the dry spices together. Marinate the chicken pieces in the olive oil & add the spices. While that marinates, chop the bell pepper, carrots, onions, garlic, and ginger. Put 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large pot, add onions, cinnamon, and cloves, and fry 3-4 min. Add garlic & ginger, fry 2 min. Add chicken curry spice; mix. Add bell peppers and carrots, fry 1-2 minutes. Add 4 cups chicken stock (or Bouillon and water), and let vegetables cook about 5 minutes. Add marinated chicken and cook until vegetables are almost fork tender but not mushy. Add ½ can coconut milk, bring to boil, then remove from heat. Pour over hot cooked rice & enjoy!

*This is the shortcut. If you have thawed chicken breast, you can use 2 pounds chopped chicken breast instead of the rotisserie chicken and marinate the same way. Here’s another shortcut: if you don’t have time to marinate the chicken, just toss in the spices as it’s cooking. The recipe is really flexible.

**Second shortcut: I keep Better than Bouillon in my fridge and use it frequently in lieu of chicken stock. It takes up less space and it tastes great.

If you make it, let me know how it turns out!

Popular on Social Media

Click here for a fun quick video reel I made. : )

***Thank you, friend, for reading and subscribing! If this is your first newsletter from me, you probably subscribed from my website, for a giveaway, chai recipe, or other resource. I’ll share helpful links, resources, and inspiration each month. If this newsletter encouraged you in some way, would you consider sharing with a friend? (Make sure you check your spam folder and move this email to your inbox!)

Until next month’s Chai Chat!

Make it a lovely one,

Prasanta

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Belonging and the Human Experience

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