I love languages, coffee and tea, playing Scrabble, chatting about philosophy and the like, and pretty much any style of music. I drink quite moderately, love the outdoors, and am about to start my MA in Religion in Chicago this fall. I just graduated from Barnard College in New York City with a double major in South Asian Studies and Religion. My main research interests are in South Asian devotional literatures.

I have been to India five times (and counting!) and hope to someday split my time between India and the US. I am crazy about learning South Asian languages and have dabbled in quite a lot of them. I lived in Jaipur for 6 months and have also spent considerable time in Madurai, Dharamsala, Karkala, Karnataka, and Lucknow.

मुझे खासकर हिंदी बोली बहुत पसंद है! मैं विश्वविद्यालय में हिंदी साहित्य पढ़ती थी और मैं हिंदी कि कई पुरानी बोलियाँ जानती हूँ जैसे कि अवधी और ब्रज भाषा। मुझे कविता का बड़ा शौक है और मेरे मनपसंद कवि मीरा, कबीर, रसखान, और तुलसीदास हैं। उर्दू शायरों में से ग़ालिब और इक़बाल मेरे पसंदीते हैं। मैं सरल-सी इन्सान हूँ−दोस्तों के साथ समय बिताती हुई, संगीत सुनती हुई,या कविता की बातें करती हुई मैं काफ़ी ख़ुश रहती हूँ।

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Right now, hosting is not possible as I'm between places of residence. I would love to host in the future though.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I had a really great introduction to CS when I was 17 and my dad took me couch surfing in Chicago to check out colleges. Since then, I have continued to have only positive experiences. Couchsurfing in China and Japan was one of the most memorable parts of the gap year I spent traveling between high school and college.

Interests

Making things, leisurely walks, playing banjo, SCRABBLE CHALLENGE, being a nerd. Indian food, Indian music, Sangam poetry, cooking. My favorite way to spend a evening is reading with friends—whether it be poetry or novels, Deleuze or Mammata. I really really love drinking tea.

• fish
• poetry
• dining
• cooking
• indian food
• coffee
• drinking
• flowers
• reading
• traveling
• music
• outdoor activities
• fishing
• surfing
• languages
• religion

Music, Movies, and Books

I love Indian classical music (Carnatic and Hindustani). I also like indie bands such as: the National, Magnetic Fields, Sufjan Stevens, Talking Heads, and many more.

Movies: Anything Wes Anderson, Christopher Guest, French New Wave, few Bollywood movies, Cohen brothers. Anything a little bit strange.

Books: I love poetry of all sorts (especially the Romantics, Whitman, Indian devotional poetry, Urdu ghazals). I love Emerson's essays. Favorite novelists include Arundhati Roy, Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan Safran Foer, Haruki Murakami, Ann Patchett, and many others.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Living in a Tibetan monastery. Standing on a bridge outside an ancient temple in Thailand and feeding fish candy-colored rice balls. Splitting open a coconut and finding a flower inside.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, India, United States