RAJI WRITES

The South Asian Literature and Art (SALA) festival presented its 6th edition Global Gaze, South Asian Soul on September 26-27 at Menlo College in Menlo Park, CA. As usual, there were stellar speakers, warm reconnections with previous attendees and old friends, stylish attire to admire, and tasty Indian fare with cups of steaming chai. I interviewed some speakers / authors at the Festival - Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan, filmmaker Nandita Das, tech executive Kamini Ramani

SALA’s 2026 Writer’s Workshop draws on Nandita Dinesh’s theater background to explore how writing on the page can come alive when spoken rather than just read aloud. I spoke with Nandita before the festival about her experiences and journey. From Coimbatore to Pune, and on to Wellesley College Nandita Dinesh grew up in Coimbatore, in Tamil Nadu — by her own description, "a small-town girl" in what was then a small town. She first moved out of Coimbatore to the Pune area to at