IMMIGRANT EXPLORES FLAG’S COLORS
Each week, this series will introduce you to an exceptional American who unites, rather than divides, our communities. To read more about the American profiled here and more average Americans doing exceptional things, visit onenation.usatoday.com.
What does it mean to you to be an American?
I think it means that I am privileged. I have opportunities I would never have had in India. It means freedom, it means a new perspective and ways of looking at things from when we first moved here from India. ... In America, you can achieve your dreams.
What moment touched and motivated you to launch this effort?
It’s a culmination of my life and prior to my life — the momentum came from my ancestors and pushed me towards America. It feels like that was my purpose and my destiny. I slept on it, and the words came to me: Blue sky white stars (the name of her patriotic children’s book, published in June). Then I just kept going with the idea. How far can this parallel take me? White rows, red rows. Red, white and blue. I wrote down the images that came to my mind.
What gives you hope and what concerns you?
My hope for our nation would be that it would continue healing. I feel like it has been on the right path of equality and acceptance for all man for who they are, whether they are disabled, whether they are of a different race, whatever makes them different, that we would celebrate the differences. ... We are not all alike, and we want to be appreciated for who we are, inside and out.
What do you hope to accomplish through your efforts?
I hope to bring more and more joy to people with my books, because I was such a reader and loved books. It was a wonder for me and a new world. My hope is I will pass along that joy to other people. In the book, I hope they will feel something when they read it, when they look at the etched lines of worry on Abraham Lincoln’s face. Even before this current political climate, I told my friend that I thought this book was meant to bring healing to this nation, to unite our nation.