Kartika_Issue15

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must use a blend of oils and perform a yogic massage of each of your face muscles with the tips of your fingers to stimulate the effective flow of the blood to your face. No doubt my rituals take up a lot of my time. But does not everyone have something that they must protect most vigorously? Skin oils one’s passage through the world. When my father saw my mother, he chose her for her skin. My father is also from Rajasthan, from a town fifty kilometers away from Udaipur to be exact, where he performs priestly functions, like his father before him, at the world-famous temple there. Visiting Udaipur in 1974, he went for dinner to his friend’s house, and there he saw my mother, the sister of his friend, for the first time. Often, my father tells of how he first saw only the arm that she had extended to serve him daal, her face and body appropriately covered. As was correct she was completely silent. Jamuni-coloured glass bangles alternating with gold ones shone on the skin of her arms and tinkled like bells every time she moved her arm from the vessel of daal to his plate then tumbled down to gather in a band at her wrist like a rainbow caught in sunlight. Immediately, he asked for her hand and they were married that same month. The same sort of story, I believe, with my husband, Anya’s father, who saw me in Udaipur from behind the pallu of my sari, six years ago. After the tea, he waited with his mother and father. My mother stood quietly in the doorway, watching me, but my father came to me as I was swinging on my swing in my rose garden, thinking of how well my flowers had bloomed that year, not wanting to leave them. He stopped my swing and laid his hand on my head and he said, Manju, accept Vinod. No more is it going to be possible to live a life of leisure here as your mother did. Everything has already changed. And I looked at the boy sitting steadfastly on the sofa inside and I decided, for my father, to accept him. And when I knew I was going to have a child, I prayed and prayed and my prayers were answered and my child was born my colour, a colour as if God had dissolved a bar of the precious metal in a glass of milk. And now, imagine my Anya’s life: every day she walks into her classroom, she will see pinned up on the wall of her classroom this image, this terrible streaked image in completely the wrong colour. It is sapping her very vitality. Therefore, dear Madam, I am writing with my urgent request for you to address this very important issue. Since your company has experience preparing so many colours of crayons, I believe that you will be able to easily create one that will correctly depict the skin of wheatish-complexioned females from the state of Rajasthan in the northwestern part of India. 24
ISSUE 15 | SPRING 2013 I anxiously wait to hear from you and assist you with any information you need as you prepare this additional crayon colour. Thank you. Yours respectfully, Mrs. Manju Nohria, B. A., M.A. To: Manju Nohria From: Ms. Clayton CC: Dr. Forrester, Ms. Simpson CC: Vinod Nohria Re: Your email Date: November 13 th Dear Manju, Thank you for your email of November 11 th , which we reviewed very carefully. We appreciate your noting that both you and Vinod trust The Newton School and the Kindergarten Oak classroom with your wonderful little girl Anya! We have a great, diverse group of children this year for which we are extremely grateful. We are enjoying Anya very much! She is such a wonderful, mature child. She’s doing very well and making great contributions to our diverse classroom, as you will learn when you attend our upcoming conference. We are sorry to hear that you have concerns with Anya’s portrait. Anya worked very hard on it and we all felt it turned out very well. We did speak with her yesterday about whether she is uncomfortable with the colours or any other aspect of her portrait and we are happy to report that she is completely satisfied with the results. In fact, she asked us when she could begin work on her full-length image! We spoke to Vinod this morning with this information as well. I hope this reassures you. Please do not hesitate to give us a call if you would like to discuss further. Our regards, Ms. Clayton and Ms. Simpson 25
Page 2 and 3: Cover Art: “The Home Front" from
Page 4 and 5: MISSION STATEMENT Kartika Review se
Page 6 and 7: EDITORIAL Eugenia Leigh Dear Reader
Page 8 and 9: Purvi Shah’s “Tree Risings” d
Page 10 and 11: The Home Front Jordan Josafat 10
Page 12 and 13: lip as she tried to swing her swoll
Page 14 and 15: “Masayuki! Tsune, sit quietly. Be
Page 16 and 17: simple wedding was kept. Along with
Page 18 and 19: Etsuko had backed out the door slow
Page 20 and 21: SKIN DEEP Anu Kandikuppa To: Kinder
Page 22 and 23: northwestern part of India, in part
Page 26 and 27: To: Ms. Clayton and Ms. Simpson Fro
Page 28 and 29: To: General Manager, Crayona Compan
Page 30 and 31: “Yes,” I said, “though I’m
Page 32 and 33: THOUGHTS OF SINKING Kaitlin Solimin
Page 34 and 35: I paused. How had she remembered th
Page 36 and 37: never touched any of the girls inap
Page 38 and 39: the next generation couldn’t best
Page 40 and 41: Chenxi climbed up the silver ladder
Page 42 and 43: she’d tried. She’d climbed to t
Page 44 and 45: else. For now, this tall, slow Amer
Page 46 and 47: “That’s true,” I said. I hate
Page 48 and 49: I’d read a newspaper article many
Page 50 and 51: Bomb the Morons 50
Page 52 and 53: Into the Wild 52
Page 54 and 55: Runaway Train 54
Page 56 and 57: PAROUSIA I Karen An-Hwei Lee Red bu
Page 58 and 59: QUARANTINE Henry W. Leung My feet p
Page 60 and 61: THE TRANSFUSION OF YUKIYO KANAHASHI
Page 62 and 63: 5. Some people will accuse me of bi
Page 64 and 65: Platonic knowledge is joyful recoll
Page 66 and 67: our self, freed from the constraint
Page 68 and 69: the story of how I began studying J
Page 70 and 71: Jackson Bliss earned his MFA from t
Page 72 and 73: piece suit nearest the air conditio
Page 74 and 75:
AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH MONIQUE TRUON
Page 76 and 77:
suspect everyone in Saigon was conc
Page 78 and 79:
KR: What is the physical act of wri
Page 80 and 81:
CONTRIBUTOR BIOS FICTION Sharon Has
Page 82 and 83:
ART 82 What The Jordan Josafat Jord
Page 84 and 85:
Nonfiction Editor, Jennifer Derilo
Page 86 and 87:
Kartika Review is a national Asian
Page 89:
ISSUE 15 | SPRING 2013 89
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