‘Sugar, Smoke, Song’: Assamese writer Reema Rajbanshi addresses discrimination in India and US

Growing up in the capital city of Guwahati, Assam, life was marked by recurring floods and occasional violence, shaping a unique resilience in middle-class girls like us. We were taught two critical lessons with utmost seriousness: never to venture out carelessly during curfews and to focus intently on our studies, so we could secure a place in prestigious colleges in Delhi, Mumbai, or Bangalore, which were seen as beacons of opportunity where one could escape the daily violence that we were accustomed to in Assam. When I was a teenager around the years 2006 to 2012, I went to convent school with strict instructions for picking up the “correct way” of speaking English, and pushing to go to the colleges in the capital city of Delhi helped.

As the years went by and I got older, eventually moving from Assam to Delhi in 2012 to attend undergraduate classes at the University of Delhi, I did not have a strong desire to study in the field of literature. I believed I was better suited for a career in international relations or law. When I talked to other students who were also in the field, they shared a similar opinion that there was no...

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