欧宝娱乐

"No matter where I go, America or India, I don鈥檛 quite fit."

"Do you speak Indian? (...) I want to tell her that people from India, just the small sample of Indian people in her own city, speak over a dozen languages. We are Hindu, Muslim, Christian and other religions. We are all different shades, from dark brown to almost as pale as she is. I want to tell her we make more kinds of delicious food than she could imagine. I want to tell her despite our differences, we have so much in common trying to make our lives here. I want to tell her I鈥檝e never studied Tamil and Kannada, the languages my parents speak. Never learned to conjugate those verbs, never learned those curly alphabets. My parents only talk to me in English. I want to tell her when I reach for words in Kannada or Tamil, all my brain can come up with is the French I learn in school, and what I understand of the languages my parents speak is confined to the mundane conversations of home. And when I do try to talk, my accent is wrong, wronger than my parents鈥� accents when they speak English. But I don鈥檛 tell her any of this. Instead, I just say 'No'."

"Together, we decide that a hero: Is brave, but not without fear. Because if you fear nothing, how can you be brave? Says what they believe is right. Because if you cannot say what you believe in, how much do you believe in it? Works to make the world better. Because doing something is even more important than talking about it. Acts out of love for others. Because caring for other people is the biggest difference between a hero and a villain."

"A mother gives you life, nourishes you, protects you, helps you when you鈥檙e hurt. But sometimes it feels like too much."

"Blood metallic and earthy, essential, cleansing, the river of life in our veins. Blood binds us to each other, as humans, as kin, parent to child. Thicker than water, it tells all. The stories of our ancestors are written there. But what happens when your own blood betrays you?"

"Reha means star. What kind of star am I? A distant one, that sparkles coldly from afar? A red giant, scorching all within its wake? Or like our sun, providing light and warmth and life?"

"What does the sky do when the moon is gone forever?"

"All our blood cells are born in our bone marrow. Red cells, white cells, and platelets. But sometimes one cell doesn鈥檛 follow the rules. Instead of leaving room for the others, sometimes one cell won鈥檛 stop dividing until it takes over all the space in the marrow and spills into the blood. It鈥檚 a type of cancer. And it鈥檚 called Leukemia."

"My mother鈥檚 name is Punam, and that means moon. Her face is as bright as a full moon, always gentle, always changing, but predictable. Like our moon, she only shows us one face. The strong one."

"God is everywhere, says Amma. He is in every living creature. God has many faces, many forms, male and female, human and animal, and forms we cannot imagine. This is why we do not hurt people, or harm animals. Why we do not eat meat. God鈥檚 wisdom is in paper and books. So we do not disrespect them or touch them with our feet. God is everywhere. And I believe it, because I hear God in Daddy鈥檚 humming as he shaves, feel God in Daddy鈥檚 kiss good night, smell God in the silk of Amma鈥檚 sari, see God reflected in her shining eyes, and taste God in the spicy, sweet, piping hot food we eat together. Our parents are God, their words are law."

"We are together in the dark. Together, we rival the stars in their brightness."

"I鈥檓 from, India and America, mother and father, past, present, and future. I have one life. That鈥檚 all any of us gets. And I know that I will make my way. For all rivers lead to the same ocean, we all look upon the same sky. I will write my own story. Amma鈥檚 life, the one she gave to me, is in my heart, my veins, my blood. And she is everywhere."