Dsplaced Volume 01

L
PE
SC
DA
h r- i
satis hnamuia ch weta s le katie i enk ne na
Volume
r
m v halam h az h krish lina alte e kati

01
kris victor lter sh houg roshn ac a sha r satis cho a ougl
it it
thy lina a hab c k m. h ni
o a tkar re bhishe nik houshia ictoria ehab c m. rosh g
ura a n. a ni ita urthy v atkar r hishek c han
arab lchanda ng nam eta sur a n. ab arlene hil su
mu ne cha kita shw e arab ndani ah nik
arle a s. ni il cha a sh
mul s. nikit m
neh h nikh iiam a nia
sha raman . neh m a k.
b r a hael ditya
sub hael k itya
mic n h ad sri
c h. a a
mi n n SEP 2009
dio ikrishna dio r i k r i s h halam g
shr s h nkitac neha s
e
m v ta shah r sati
niki oushia murt

L D
ita h krishna ia ch
sh victor
thy a alter
in
o al eta sur
shw ar reh
atk hou

P
ab c kat
gle ra
tie a n
ba

neh u
shah hnam h
n ikita ish kris a alter s gl
alam sat o alin b chou m
tach ushiar reha bhishekarle
ho h
azitaictoria c n. a andani
v ar ch

Dsplaced
rthy suratk
osh weta tie arab ul
a
k m. r ni arl
ishe da
abh ulchan neha s bra
.n e ka shni m h
o
m hang
ni c hil s
ne ah nik ichael hrikr
u k. m. r hang neha
ne c nikita s ra ish A Collective Storytelling Experiment
le h srikr n
s m as
dity iram a s. hil sub ditya iram ve a
ikita aniam k a r
h a a sr nki h ni niam a s itach

ContEntS
ord ans
i iar S.
w M ush ha
es ore al & ta H
o Ne o
d quot 4F Jin Azi 07 Ch
r i e s a nr o s s t h e
a
to
0
05 tori
teen s 06 Vic ang
e ac h
t ion o f e i g hm b y p e o p l e did.
If 08
eneC
l K. tka
r
collec placed.co h as w . Arl ae ra ani
s a c ich Su
e 01 i o ds as mu ries
10 M ta
cha
nd
ced Volum ubmitted t ading these tion of sto 12 Sh
we
iM
ul
Dspla ve been s enjoy
re
is col
lec 13 shn y
th at ha p e you to share th Ro urth
We ho ee 16 am
globe. do, feel fr r hK
ri shn
you lte is
aA Sat
Alin 18
14

.
nH
Dio
19
m
chala
n kita
ah Ve
Sh m
le ita S rira
houg Nik 26
bC 21
ha
Re
20 na s
ie rish re dit
Kat Shri
k
eC
22 M. ag
k N. am itya Im
she aba ani Ad 28
hi Ar m 27
Ab 24 bra
23 u
hil S
QUOTE Nik
STORY 25

FoREWoRD

Sh Ah Di
in Al
in
I-95 ing
Ri VE
it
e be ,
n th ngra
J g o n s e o f e e n ’s Bha s that

nS
rivin se Qu t in gles
, b
Dsplaced illuminates a universal palette of emotions that individuals ’m d range t the
I t no Ban adcrum
A
n ,
w h e e t a s g p a s i z e, I ’ m ood re

M llyw e my b
often spend a lifetime trying to decipher. But most importantly, es n l
etim hia, I g drivi I rea B o
Dsplaced is an experiment in collective storytelling – and it is our om elp d n - g s. y ar .”
“S ad n
y a he t h i n r y. T h e o h o m e
fervent hope that you will become a part of this mosaic. We know Phil Bomba And t tle ur
o lit C y. T
no other way that will allow us to create a place that overtime will i n k l a c e. on t Brinjal Bomba
old
build itself into a rich tapestry of personal stories. Read the stories n e c b a y.” “I h ss and ack to
Bom Bra me b
and if you feel ready, share your story with us. lead
www.dsplaced.com | dsplaced@gmail.com

We look forward to reading your story.

Jinal & Mansi
(Founders)

4 5

“ home is about
6 7

“Home was in my grandmother’s family. No matter
lap in her garden as she braided where i am, if i am
my hair & spun tales of Princess with my family, i am
of Naranj & Toranj, and dipped home .
sugarcubes in her tea.” ”

azita houshiar neha s.

A NEW DAY. A NEW ADVENTURE
Some people thought I was insane to return to All I longed for were Buddhist temples, parks with
America when the economy was sinking, when I waterfalls, and the casual interpretation of time that
could easily get another teaching job in Asia, when meant if people proposed meeting at 2 PM, 2:15 or
I expressed such dislike over New York, and when I even 2:30 would still be acceptable.
consistently praised the cheapness, the beauty, and
the kind people of Asia. My well-being and mentality slightly improved once
I moved into my Brooklyn apartment. I have a
I returned to New York anyway. I was tired of spacious bedroom on a tree-lined block inhabited by
traveling and the inability to hold conversations with families. Down the street, children play basketball in
others. a park or have field trips to the Brooklyn Children’s
museum. There are bike paths on my cross streets,
I cried a few times my first week while staying with a and I’m in close proximity to Prospect Park, the
friend in Washington Heights. I loathed the crowds, Brooklyn Library, and the Brooklyn Museum.
the filthy packed subway cars, the dirty and too
numerous buildings that seemed as if they wanted Although I’ve formed a comforting routine of writing,
to topple on me and press me into the dirty, rat reading, applying to jobs, meditating, and doing yoga,
poop-covered sidewalk, the noise noise noise, and I still don’t know if I can or ever will call New York
the people’s ubiquitous addiction to a Blackberry, an home. Sometimes Portland or San Francisco whisper
iPhone, or some other electronic device. What New in my ear. Sometimes, places farther away. I’ve
York claimed as parks were as covered with people physically returned to America, but where has my
as Chinatown and sometimes not much cleaner. mind settled? Is this a return to the past or is this
really the beginning of another adventure?
I lost focus. I had trouble reading, writing, thinking,
victoria cho breathing, and staying in the moment, a concept I
found incredibly soothing and relieving in Thailand. 9

DEJA VU
I love the first snow of the season…It’s like a deja vu of I had this sudden craving for cutting chai, butter makka
the first rains back home. The glitch though is, it doesn’t and garma garam bhajiyas…Of course, those cravings
smell as divine as India’s wet earth. remained just that - cravings. I correct myself here.

Last year was my first winter, after just four months, in I love the first snow, but I live for the lashing rains of
New York. And, being from a tropical country like India Bombay. The smell and sound of butter on a garam bhutta,
and a humid city like Bombay, the snow thrilled me to no the cutting chai from the tapris and the taste of freshly
end. I celebrated - went out and danced in the snow with made bhajiyas on my already scalded tongue. I love the
snowflakes falling on my face, the cold biting my skin passion of the rains, the salty spray from the wild Arabian
and most of all, I indulged in a frolicking snow fight with Sea messing with my hair and of course, the smell of my
friends. I could well have been singing ‘Raindrops keep earth. The smell of India.
falling on my head’. Only, these were snowflakes…

Something similar happened today. As the skies burst
open, my feet suddenly had a life of its own. I was walking
with a lilt in my gait and looking towards the sky, as if
waiting for the snow to lash my face. Of course, that didn’t
happen. Snowflakes don’t lash your face as passionately as
raindrops do. At best, they can give you a frostbite.

As I was enjoying my walk from office to the subway, I
was happy about my happiness - a feeling that New York

10
doesn’t manage to evoke from me oftentimes. But then,
arlene chang

Home.
Will we ever really find it? Will our hearts ever settle? We flee from place to place, forever
searching for that bit of stability. And when we think we have found it, something quickly proves
us wrong. We get bored or discover that things aren’t as we expected. And off we go, with eyes
turned to the road once again. Home is something evasive; something wet and slippery and hard to
grasp. And when we do manage to grab it, it is oh so eager to escape our grip.

michael k.
New York and Mumbai are similar. But there is one difference amongst its
dwellers. In NY the 18 inch separation of space between two people transcends
to their hearts.
In Mumbai, it’s just the space.

shweta suratkar
New York and Mumbai are similar. But there is one difference amongst its dwellers. In NY the 18 inch
separation of space between two people transcends to their hearts. In Mumbai, it’s just the space.

Tokyo swallowed me up in one neon-flashing, subway-mobbing, in front of me. It was painstaking at first, testing my motivation

READING THE CITY
impossibly bright and impeccably-styled gulp. I live here now. I say and patience, and I can’t quite describe the sensation, but the
the words carefully, letting them roll over my tongue (trembling from world around me had suddenly become accessible, no longer the
a day of stumbling through the staccato fortress that is Japanese). overwhelming, mysterious Babylon that it had been. That’s the day
I’m glad to be seen carrying grocery bags down the alley behind my that I began walking into things.
apartment- it means people know I live here.
Anytime I saw a sign, an advertisement, even a menu posted
Were I merely a tourist, I surely wouldn’t be grocery shopping, outside, I craned my neck to read it. I read everything, slowly
buying my tiny food to store in my tiny fridge in my tiny room. I’m identifying and sounding out each character, then stringing them
proud to wait in line at the market, the pharmacy, the ward, I’m together, and finally attempting to glean the meaning as a whole.
proud to be attempting to infiltrate the biggest city on the planet, This frequently required me to stop walking suddenly in my tracks,
knowing that if I pushed any further east, I would start wrapping thus causing a pile-up of throngs of busy Tokyoites behind me,
around the globe, and be heading towards home again. But here or better yet, caused me to walk directly into a stationary object
I am, head spinning, blood pumping the inexhaustible soundtrack in front of me as my head was still turned and my mouth still
of the city into my veins. House music maybe, or some syrupy, mumbling incoherently and excitedly to myself. Having been here for
digitalized, genre of the future. I am perpetually over-stimulated in several months now, I still read everything I can, though I’ve learned
my new life here. My eyes are never not straining, my brain never not to injure my self or others in the process.
not processing. And I am constantly reading, reading, reading.
And when I’m not reading the entire city, I’m breathing it, sweating
When I first arrived, all the signs, advertisements, and notices were it, squeezing it, tasting it, cradling it, capturing it, seducing it, and
nothing more to me than a random combination of lines, swirls, grasping it, preparing for the day when I’ll have to remember it.
shapes, and designs. Nothing written held any meaning for me,
which led to immense frustration, confusing, and disorientation. Yet I
diligently kept studying the characters, writing and rewriting them on
every available surface, a sort of mania that led my hand right off
the paper I was working on. Finally, one day on the train, I looked
up at an advertisement, neurotransmitters fired in the way they’re
supposed to, and I found that I could sound out the words written

alina alter 15

H A R D LY L O ST I N TRA NS LATI O N would pack our bags and head anywhere we could. My all housed within a 23 kilometer radius. In addition, such a small city. But over time, I’ve come to like the
British passport is filled with stamps including: U.S.A, the energy and buzz the city never sleeps possesses peace and slight resemblance to India that Fremont
For more reasons than one, I believe that my parents Indonesia, Russia, Spain, Austria, The Philippines, is literally pulsating. On numerous occasions during encompasses. While I may never call it “home,” it is a
should have invested in a family airplane. It would have Thailand and of course, India. my stay in New York, my best friend and I would city which I will hold close to my heart.
really saved them a lot of money that was spent on our realize we were bored at 3 a.m. only to walk out and
travel and moving about. Born, bred and bought up Most of my summers were spent in the grueling but be surrounded by tons of people in Times Square. Personally, I’ve come to a point in my life where I
in Hong Kong was perhaps the best experience of my amazing Bombay (more recently Mumbai) monsoons. I doubt I slept for over six hours a day until I sadly think I need to head back east now. It is ultimately my
life. I was born much before it was handed back to the I remember being forewarned not to eat any foods graduated. dream to make India my home for a simple reason
Chinese regime and for majority of my childhood lived sold by the roadside hawkers and secretly gorging on that I don’t think I have found my home till date. They
in British controlled Hong Kong. My British school was local goodies on an outing with my friends. Mumbai is I then moved westward to sunny California. It was say home is where the heart is and my dil goes dhak-
the biggest melting pot in the world. Enrolled were definitely my favorite city in the world. I love everything perhaps one of the most humbling experiences in dhak for India. I can’t imagine living the rest of my life
expatriates from the U.K., Indians, Aussies, Chinese it stands for. While everyone know it is a city whose my life. From constantly living in a city, I moved into anywhere else. I really wish there was such thing as a
and a whole amalgamation of other cultures. While spirit cannot be broken, Mumbai has an essence a small “village” in the east bay known as Fremont. Global Passport for citizens such as myself. After all,
I grew up eating Sunday Dim-Sum, learning British which cannot be imitated. The minute I step off the Why “village” you ask? Well it is actually known as the the world is getting smaller by the minute.
grammar and spelling, at home we were still a typical plane into Chattrapathi Shivaji airport in Mumbai and city of Fremont but I think I live in the tallest building
Sindhi Hindu family. Our lives evolved around Hindi smell Indian soil, I think… “Yay! I’m home!” And which is only five floors high which technically makes A lot of the time, I feel like I’ve come too far west for
movies, Monday temple visits, Friday ashram services naturally, tears fall from my eyes when I leave. it a village. I constantly complain about this small my own good making me feel sometimes d(i)splaced
and Saturday Bharatnatyam classes followed by city but it is really is not that bad. Because of the in this world, but definitely not in life. However, that
Bollywood hip-hop sessions. My memories of my When it came down to choosing a city to head off to amount of Indian influence in this minor metropolis, it said, the world is your oyster and as much as I have
childhood are filled with antarkshari afternoons which study, I knew it had to be New York. I had been there has come to gain its name as Little India. It is rather globe-trotted all over the world, I can safely say I am
my father and I often won as a tag team and Hindi previously and absolutely loved the city. Manhattan in fitting as it accommodates a popular Indian cinema, hardly lost in translation.
movies galore. My parents were also great travelers. itself, is the world on an island. No where else in the a number of Desi supermarkets and restaurants. In all
The minute we would have a break from school, we world will you find a mini Korea, Japan, India and China honesty, I initially complained nonstop about living in

roshni mulchandani

19

In a maximum
city that runs
so fast, it is
only when
you are still
that you can
spot the next dion h.
opportunity.

“i am twenty years between
homes, and counting.
satish krishnamurthy home is a cloud.”

CUt ShoRt
Words are pretty potent things. From Mummy to Roomie.
What happens when you wake up a
Dream? I`m having Déjà vu about the It’s snowing and I am jubilant. I was
whole thing. In Dreams that come so jubilant all through Fall. Spring is
true, Life surpasses the time-space on the anvil, I shall be jubilant. I’ll go
continuum. home to Summer if I can buy myself

nikita shah From city to city, the curious ones go.
a ticket out of here. I think I`m here
to stay. Love is unconditional yet
Life is not. It’s all so amusing and
Seekers. Wanderers. Dreamers. Go. anecdotal. Like the stuff you want to

A i Going. Gone. I’ve just arrived. I`m make scrapbooks about. Blog worthy.

MB
a big city girl. They assured me I’ll Solitude begins tasting bad when
M U S C At > t o > get by just fine. I`m resting assured. it turns into Loneliness. I`m doing
MU I`m just a restless kind of person. It great so far. I’ve just arrived. So busy
took two suitcases to pack a lifetime watching busy people going about
into. Well, almost. I hate baggage. their businesses. You’ve to internalise
Memories are beyond backpacks. a lot of things to adapt faster. Can
Thank God. Comfort Zones get too sense I’m going to be real busy real
Moving from Muscat, Oman to Mumbai, India I hated the adjustment and the frequent smoke,
cushy sometimes. This Life is brand soon. Yearned to be here and got
was like moving from a sleepy faraway cottage the easy friendships, the pani puri made with dirty new; in Debit, on Credit. There is lucky. It’s so expensive to keep this
in the countryside to a high rise in a bustling city. hands. Today, its home. It matters and it keeps me something so sinister about plastic dream alive.
Muscat is the sleepy, towny, cosy city where your running on smoke…packed trains and yummilicious money; you just don’t see the
friends know your grandmother’s name, where pani puri.. Muscat is an like an old classic in your damned thing. Out of sight yet on No Rant, please.
pongal is celebrated with as much fervour as is aunt’s cellar and Mumbai is like a bestseller chick-lit the mind. All the time.From Paanch
Rupaiyaa Baarah Aana to Dollars and So, like I was saying, I awoke once to
Hanukkah. While Mumbai is a city in random motion. that mirrors your life and your laughs. Both are dear Pennies. From Dolphin to Orange to a Dream and turns out its American.
Sometimes Mumbai shows purpose…other times its to my heart. Airtel to AT&T. What, really? Words are such wasted
chaotic is a blissful ignorant way. When I first moved, little things.
From family surveillance to a lusty

rehab chougle freedom. Let’s meet. Your city or mine?

FROM SAND TO SNOW hoME iS A PlACE
My fingers have been frozen more often in the last year of my
life than in the previous 23 years combined. In Minnesota, I WhERE yoU CAn BE
yoURSElF. WhERE
brushed inches of soft, floury snow away from the windshield
of my car with a gloved hand almost daily. The remnants of
snow on my glove would melt and seep through to the dry,

yoU ARE At PEACE.
cracked skin beneath. In Oregon, I’ve stooped on my knees and
wrestled with putting chains on my tires with stiff, mud-covered
fingers, so that I would make it over icy hills and overpasses. I
katie grew up in Texas, where winters are mild. I put up most of my
Christmas trees in shorts. I had never even seen real snow until
I left—had only poked my fingers giddily into an inch or so of
icy slush on a handful of memorable occasions. I hadn’t known
that snow could be so soft or so dry, that it could be as fine
as mist or as heavy as crocodile tears. I didn’t know that on
abhishek m.
the coldest days, it would blow across pavement like sand or
that it really could form perfect, glittering flakes. I didn’t know
I could become so tired of the color white. I had a lot to learn
when I left. Snow—which had seemed such an obvious thing
before I moved across the country, I never considered there
was anything to learn about it, except perhaps how to drive in
it—was one of the first.
22

IN SEARCH OF MY TREASURE
A man, as justification for me to move into his home, remarked, “for
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. I scoffed, with
disdain, at his attempt to bend a spiritual notion to suit his carnal desires.
2 I shunt
between two
-1 homes. One affords
The last few years, though, as I’ve moved from country to country,
presumably satisfying my wanderlust, those words have haunted me. =? me freedom, another
gives me comfort
Home was always a physical place – where my bed was, inhabited by and rest. One lets me
those I cared about most. Accordingly, I’m now homeless – most of my breathe, the other lets
stuff is in storage, I go to an empty apartment at day’s end, and should I me breathe out. Both
not show, my bed will not seek after me. are homes away from
the other home.
But, has the very scattering of my possessions and loss of physical One home stays awake past
proximity to family created this displacement or is it merely an allegorical bedtime, another sleeps too
parallel? For a short period I moved back to my parents’ home. Sadly, early. I cannot live without
it did not re-settle my heart. I’m disillusioned – unaware if the treasure either. Now I may be facing my
my heart seeks is material, human, or spiritual. I do know it no longer biggest fear. I have a feeling
tolerates the flux and flight it’s endured the last decade. So I’m eagerly that one home is closing its
seeking my treasure, whatever it may be, wherever it may lie, in the hope doors on me.
it’ll grant my heart the reprieve it so longs from displacement.

24
araba n. nikhil subramaniam

“
26

Remember that you
have everything to
gain when you get
displaced. Try as
much as possible,
to get lost in this
Home is the place you leave big bad world. It
could turn into the
because some of it is rotten greatest lesson of

”
your life.
and you don’t believe you can repair it.

sriram venkitachalam aditya shrikrishna

IMAGE
CREDITS
All images are the sole property of its owners.
Click on the links within to explore more work
from these talented photographers/designers.

Manojd on Flickr barunpatro on stock.xchng I Travel East on Flickr SanDev on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/manojd http://www.sxc.hu/photo/989670
http://www.flickr.com/photos/i_travel_east/3451296269/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/57652915@N00/528146146

www.dsplaced.com
dspla c ed@ gma il.c om

missbass on stock.xchng ringoc2 on stock.xchng MumbaiVasi on Flickr Free Vector World Map garytamin on stock.xchng lenscap on stock.
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1140347 http://www.sxc.hu/photo/558305
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28307387@ by Studio 7 Designs http://www.sxc.hu/photo/923841 xchng
http://www.studio7designs.com/ http://www.sxc.hu/photo/899541
N04/2648518541/sizes/o/

Églantine on Dpup on Flickr chezrump on Flickr Manojd on Flickr doudou on Flickr selvin on Flickr Manojd on Flickr ValeriBishop
Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulhollingworth/140434906/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/22874768@ http://www.flickr.com/photos/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/ http://www.valeriebishop.com/ DESIGNED BY MANOJ DAMODARAN
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ dpup/2807037869/sizes/l / manojd manojd
eglantine/1072222174/ sizes/o/ N05/2797137513/ selvin/3500590723/ sitebuilder/images/illustration1- www.manojdamodaran.com
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Dsplaced Volume 01