Preston Merchant

Phagwah Celebrations in New York

In the Richmond Hill section of Queens, New York, Hindus from Guyana and Trinidad celebrate Phagwah, the Caribbean name for the Indian festival of Holi, by dousing each other with colored powders and liquids.  There is also a parade down Liberty Avenue, so the event becomes an Indo-Caribbean national day, marking the arrival of spring.  These photos are from 2004.

Minal Hajratwala - Leaving India: My Family’s Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents

At the SAWCC LitFest this past weekend, I met Minal Hajratwala, author of Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents, about her family's migration, over a century, from India to Fiji, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.  She spent seven years researching and writing the book, traveling the world to interview more than seventy-five members of her extended family.

Minal Hajratwala is a writer, performer, poet, and queer activist based in San Francisco, where she was born before being whisked off to be raised in New Zealand and suburban Michigan.

Her website includes a wealth of materials about the book, including a video trailer and a slide show (no direct link but you can get to it from the main page).  There is also a good collection of resources about the global Indian diaspora.