NEW YORK, USA, November 10, 2001: Shoba Narayan, a working mother residing in New York, reflects on her return to religion. “Recently, I had an epiphany of the sort one normally experiences in middle age: I realized that, within my social circle, religion had become quite fashionable. Many of my friends are middle-aged Hindu Indians with successful careers and at least two children. Like me, they came to this country over a decade ago, usually carrying nothing more than a suitcase and a few hundred dollars. They wanted to offer their kids the best of the East and West: Eastern tranquility combined with Western go-getting. So we return to the temple. Last weekend, for instance, I stood before the icon of the God Ganesh at the Hindu temple in Queens, muttering incoherent Sanskrit chants as I clutched the hands of my four-year-old daughter, Ranjini. I felt like an impostor caught in the middle of a strange, surrealistic set. I was part of the scene, yet I wasn’t. I had become a born-again Hindu, that’s what. Now on Sundays, I drag my daughter to the temple. Instead of wearing figure-hugging designer clothes, I wear voluminous saris. I don’t scoff at tradition; I attempt to follow it. I have turned into someone I had sworn I would never become: a Hindu mom.”
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