For many years as a public speaking coach, I have encouraged people to share their personal stories and open up their lives to strangers. Sometimes this involves deeply emotional and tender subjects that aren’t easy to address but can have a powerful impact in opening eyes and sharing perspective. I have to say, it is much harder to do this in practice than to teach it.

I shared very intimate reflections on my family background and my upbringing as the daughter of an African-American mother and estranged father from India in Brown Girl Magazine’s recently published first book, Untold: Defining Moments of the Uprooted. It was an emotionally challenging and liberating experience to put this story out into the world, and it just happened to be around the same time that I was interviewed about being “Blindian” for a story about Vice President Kamala Harris in the Washington Post’s publication, The Lily.

“Untold” is an anthology of first-person reflections from across the South Asian diaspora on topics such as identity, displacement, self-image, religion, sexuality, health, caste, race, gender, and discrimination, among other important topics. It’s a truly stunning and groundbreaking collection, and a must read for anyone interested in the vast landscape of the South Asian experience.