Hello there! My (nick)name is Pree and looks like you’ve stumbled upon Second Gen Desi 😊!
I have been a blogger since 2009, with so many URL, template, theme, and blog host site changes along the way! Blogging began as a hobby in high school, with a Blogspot-hosted site documenting my foodie adventures on a trip to LA with friends. It was a hobby I didn’t fully devote myself to until I started college. I created a WordPress-hosted blog titled “Caloric and Crazy“, and met all sorts of foodies like myself through the interwebs. The early 2010s was a good time to be a blogger, before the popularity of Instagram took over 😉 !
As I ended undergrad, I applied to PhD programs in biology/nutrition, and ended up joining a lab at a SoCal university studying those two topics! The happenings during my final year of undergrad, “gap year” before graduate school, my years in a PhD program and a few months into my post-doc were documented in my first self-hosted blog, Will Study for Food.
My late-teens/early twenties were a tumultuous time for me. I battled an eating disorder for almost six years, which severely impacted my experience in undergrad—socially and personally. I spent almost a year and a half in conscious recovery—it wasn’t an obstacle to gain the weight I needed, the challenge was tackling all of the emotional, body image, and social issues I had neglected to pay attention to.
Luckily, some beautiful people entered into my life around this time, and I was able to embrace the concepts of self-awareness, self-love, and self-acceptance. Things got rocky again towards the end of my PhD training, but thankfully, balance was restored, and I became a recipient of a doctorate!
In the blogging world, I used to go by P, and adopted the nickname ‘Pree’ among close friends, but when I started Second Gen Desi, I decided to conclude my blogging efforts with Will Study for Food when I experienced the natural life transition that occurs with obtaining a PhD. I thought it would be perfect to focus on new goals with writing and passions beyond what foods I’ve been eating or restaurants I visited over the weekend (though, I still enjoy doing that)!
I started my expat journey in Italy in mid-2020, and have written about my experience since on this blog. It’s been an adventure of highs and lows, and I’m glad I have this space to document it all! I decided to press pause on my “expat life” in April 2023, when a new job offer opened up back home. I am now working on building my life professionally, financially, and personally (with writing, I hope to get my “in-progress” works published one day, and with running, I still dream of being an elite runner!). For me, returning to the US for the time being is what I need to do to hit the ground running, but you never know what the future holds…I could very well be an expat again one day, but hopefully with more money in the bank and after feeling more established in my life goals!
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I am a daughter of desi immigrants. My dad came to America in the late 70s, and had a raw first gen experience. After 10 years, he went back to India, married my mom in an arranged marriage, and the both of them came back to begin a new chapter in life: raising two second gen desi girls in America (with a brief stint in the UK) through the 90s and 2000s.
He’s given me bits and pieces of his story, and hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to share it here, but man, do I have a lot to say as well! My goal with Second Gen Desi is to write about my experiences growing up as a brown girl straddling two cultures that were practically worlds apart…to document my stories, thoughts, and memories of confusion, frustration, loneliness, excitement, love, neglect, depression, and optimism. My hope for this blog is that it not only reaches, comforts, and inspires girl and women readers of the South Asian diaspora, but also open-minded individuals who see the importance of intercultural awareness, and want to learn more the second gen desi experience (if only just one example)…
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My posts are organized into the following categories, which can be accessed with the navigation bar at the top of the site:
🌸 THE S C I E N C E :
I think scientists don’t have any problem speaking to each other using technical terms that the public would just go 😕 to, but that can also be a problem. Then the media tries to step in to translate the meaning of a peer-reviewed journal article, and concludes that the scientists have cured or are a year away from curing cancer! It’s all extremes! As a freshly-minted PhD, I wanted to devote a section of this blog to highlighting interesting (at least to me!) scientific articles and/or books, but with the goal of translating it so that anyone without a scientific background gets the jist…
🌸 L I F E :
When I was younger (grade school/middle school, and some of my high school years), I was a HUGE journal writer. I loved keeping a diary and documenting my days, the kids I had a rivalry with, the guys I “liked” (I hated using the word crush, lol), and the anxieties I faced. After learning about blogging, this became my new way to journal. My previous blogs were heavily food-based, but I also tried to write my posts in a style that also highlighted my whereabouts in life. Here, I’ll probably stick to topics related to how I navigate the world as a desi woman international scientist!
🌸 P A S S I O N S –
I like to think I am a well-rounded person, but my main passions would have to be running, checking out restaurants, walking/running with dogs (shelter pups are my heart!), traveling, and writing. Perhaps over the course of this blog’s growth, I’ll develop some other passions—guess you’ll have to stick around to see if I do 😉!!
🌸 THE SGD E X P E R I E N C E –
My biggest goal with this blog is to provide a space to write on second desi culture, and to share my experiences and opinions. Of course, each second gen desi’s experience is unique—we’re not just from America. Others of my generation were born in the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, you name it. Our parents 👏 covered 👏 the 👏 globe 👏. I grew up thinking that I was a unicorn in the sense that I couldn’t find anyone that could relate to my struggles as an SGD, but perhaps we were all struggling alone, together…
🌸 T R A V E L S –
I listed travel as one of my passions, but honestly it is deserving of its own page! I’ve traveled all my life, but solo international travel was something I dived into as a graduate student. I’m hoping that my future includes a lot more opportunities for domestic and international travel!
I also co-host a podcast with my bestie! If you’re into hilarious chats about real world topics affecting millennials, click here for Pour the Coffee!
I hope I earn your readership, and that you’re ready for some mad thoughts and opinions—I keep it 100 here!!
