Love is not all you need. Sunny was the first child I met at Mother Teresa’s missionary in Kolkata, India. He launched his six year old, bony body around my leg when I first walked out of the staff room. When I looked down, the only thing I could see was his buzz-cut of black hair with a bald circle in the front of his head. As I wiggled my foot, I was met with uncontrollable laughter and four...

For the past eleven years of my life, I have watched my mother balance working a nine-to-five job, raising two children, and establishing a nonprofit organization. When she was not driving me to dance practice, she was on the phone delegating a task to Medha USA. When elected president of the organization, it was her words: “It’s like I’m running a business” that struck me. As I became more involved with the organization, I began to comprehend the...

My interest in singing stemmed from my parent’s DVD compilation of old Bollywood hits. Even from a young age, the idea of tempo and tone intrigued me. I would sing along to songs whose lyrics had no meaning to me, as they were in Hindi, but whose harmonies immediately connected with me. Singing along to good music, no matter the language, is a human instinct. I progressed from casually belting Bollywood songs while doing math homework to performing Broadway...