One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul

“What are you doing?” I asked her as she tucked the bag into her purse. Mom gathered it all and stuffed it into a heavy-duty Ziploc bag. “In the fifth grade, I got my hair chopped off in an ill-advised pixie cut, some two feet of dark black hair sheared off me like a sheep. Your mom is your blood and bone before your body even knows how to make any.”ĭaughters showing love for their mothers is how my heart remains fulfilled.

Your mom can stop a bullet from lodging in your heart. “Nothing bad can happen to you if you’re with your mom. Ask my dad and he’ll wax poetic about my mother’s cheekbones, her rich eyes, her long hair, how he needed to get to know her. “My dad first saw her at his cousin’s house-my mom was her friend-and was flustered by her beauty. Her parents remain two of the most caring and daring ones I've had the pleasure to read as of late.Īnd I'm not even kidding when I say that most of my favorite pieces were about them. Getting to read about a small piece of her Kashmiri family history was intoxicating. Koul won my heart over almost instantly with her essays.īut most of all, I knew I was a goner when she talked about her family. Dealing with fear, anxiety, grief, parenting, insecurities, racial discrimination, racial advantage, shadism, white privilege, sexism, feminism, online harassment, sexual harassment, diversity in media, and so much more. And Scaachi Koul did not disappoint with her wry humor and telling insights on a plethora of subjects. Where strict gender rules bind in both Western and Indian cultures, forcing her to confront questions about gender dynamics, racial tensions, ethnic stereotypes and her father's creeping mortality-all as she tries to find her feet in the world.Īny writer promised to bear similarities to either Mindy Kaling or Roxane Gay will have my immediate interest in the palm of their hand. Alongside these personal stories are pointed observations about life as a woman of colour, where every aspect of her appearance is open for critique, derision or outright scorn. Her subjects range from shaving her knuckles in grade school, to a shopping trip gone horribly awry, to dealing with internet trolls, to feeling out of place at an Indian wedding (as an Indian woman), to parsing the trajectory of fears and anxieties that pressed upon her immigrant parents and bled down a generation. In One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, Scaachi deploys her razor-sharp humour to share her fears, outrages and mortifying experiences as an outsider growing up in Canada.

A collection of essays about growing up the daughter of Indian immigrants in Canada, 'a land of ice and casual racism,' by the cultural observer, Scaachi Koul.

One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul