Dinner here at home last Tuesday with a group of Calcutta/Darjeeling Chinese was a lot of fun. For most of us, it was the first time that we met together since living in India. Peggy and Cyril came down from Canada; Joy and Effa live in San Mateo; Alice lives in Hayward; Nicole lives in San Francisco; Noel and me in Berkeley. There was so much animation and joy in getting reconnected, exchanging of personal accounts of the '62 border war, life in Calcutta during that time, and the effects of the internment.

A few weeks back I was recently contacted by a young man living in Palo Alto named Daniel. He told me his mum just read my book and it had really resonated with her. He thought it would be nice if the two of us met. He told me his parents were coming to visit him from Canada in early May and would I be open to meeting them, perhaps at a restaurant. He told him I would be delighted to meet them, but I thought it would be nicer and more relaxing if we had dinner in our home. I also invited two other women, whom I had met briefly shortly after my book launch last October, to join us.