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

Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan and his book "Why We Die" (HarperCollins, 2024). Photo credit: georgekelley.org Before the 2026 Nobel Prizes announcements rolled in, a 2009 laureate, Venki Ramakrishnan who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath) for elucidating the structure of ribosomes, spoke at the South Asian Literature and Art Festival (SALA) 2026, about his new book Why We Die, living longer and techie arrogance. Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan informed an