My parents' relationship with Kolkata is so strong. Growing up, the absence of Kolkata was always present in our lives.

As a child, I felt that the Indian part of me was unacknowledged, and therefore somehow negated, by my American environment and vice versa. Growing up, I was impatient with my parents for being so different, holding on to India the way they did, and always making me feel like I had to make a choice of which way I would go.

My parents had an arranged marriage, as did so many other people when I was growing up. My father came and had a life in the United States one way and my mother had a different one, and I was very aware of those things. I continue to wonder about it, and I will continue to write about it.

I've inherited a sense of that loss from my parents because it was so palpable all the time while I was growing up, the sense of what my parents had sacrificed in moving to the United States, and yet at the same time, building a life here and all that that entailed.

I can't be worrying about what other people think of me. I am my own person, and I have made it this far on my own. This is me - take me or leave me. I don't owe explanations to the rest of the world, only to my family.

There are so many ebbs and flows in life, but when you're raising small children, your family means everything.

I would like to concentrate fully on football during the Euro, and I would feel much better if my family is not sitting in the stadium.

When you have a big family, certainly with strong personalities, you feel like you have to fall into a role, and I didn't want to be the little sister or the daughter, because that's who you become as an adult.