Safar: Madhushree Ghosh in conversation with Anjali Enjeti

Join us for an evening celebrating Madhushree Ghosh's Safar: Finding Home, History, and Culture through Punjabi Food in the American West, a poignant reflection on what it means to find home and identity through food and culture as an immigrant to the United States. Ghosh will be in conversation with Anjali Enjeti.

This event will be in the Auditorium of Decatur Library, on the Ground Floor. Due to new security protocols, guests must enter the building through the upper level, rear doors, and then take the elevator to "G." Elevators open at 6:30. Please arrive early to ensure extra time for security.

About the Book: Safar: Finding Home, History, and Culture through Punjabi Food in the American West is the journey of South Asian refugees, immigrants and their children—in particular, Sikhs, Jats and Muslims—who moved to the southwestern states of America over centuries as farmers, truck drivers, restaurant owners and dhaba/diner stall cooks. An expedition in search of the asli or real Punjabi food, Madhushree Ghosh explores how their food traveled from British India pre-partition (1947) to now, covering the different waves of Punjabi immigration to the southwest through the years as a result of war, fear, deprivation or for a better future. Interwoven in Safar is Ghosh’s own immigrant journey as a graduate student to America in 1993, her quest to find home through the food her Bengali refugee parents made which then translated to a physical journey she embarked on to visit the different Punjabi communities in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The book is divided into parts, focusing on four Punjabi women, each a part of a different wave of South Asian immigrants to the American West, and the food and recipes they brought with them that connect them to their pasts. Safar shares stories of displacement, discrimination, community, and hope. Ghosh explores the universal question of immigrant journeys and the true meaning of home, of comfort food, and what constitutes a ‘true Punjabi’ meal. Featuring essential Punjabi recipes, this is a poignant reflection on what it means to find home and identity through food and culture as an immigrant to the United States.

About the Author: Madhushree Ghosh is the daughter of refugees and an immigrant to America. She is also the author of the award-winning KHABAAR: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory, and Family. She uses food to discuss civil rights, social justice, culinary-, community-, and cultural history. Ghosh’s work has appeared in Best American Essays in Food Writing, been Pushcart nominated, and published in The New York Times, Vogue India, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lit Hub, The Rumpus, and Atlas Obscura, among other outlets. She runs the global literary salon and supper club KhabaarCo, enabling conversations on food cultures, writing, travel, and mindful activism through conversations with changemaking activists, historians, authors, and chefs. Ghosh considers both San Diego and New Delhi home.

About the Conversation Partner: Anjali Enjeti is the award-winning author of The Parted Earth and Southbound: Essays on Identity, Inheritance, and Social Change. Her third book, Ballot, describes voting and voting rights from her perspective as a Georgia voter, poll worker, and electoral organizer, who has volunteered for the campaigns of Jon Ossoff, Stacey Abrams, Reverend Raphael Warnock, and others. Her writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Harper's Bazaar, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing in the MFA programs at Antioch University in Los Angeles and Reinhardt University in Waleska, Georgia.