Portrait of author in Chennai, India by Jayashree Sahithya
Hi, Iโm Yamuna โ cultural explorer, mother between worlds, and storyteller fascinated by ancestry, memory, and the stories we carry. Through personal essays, family histories, and journeys across cultures and generations, I trace the tangled threads of identity, belonging, and becoming.
I arrived in Kutch, Gujarat, as a stranger, dropped into a remote village with little more than a name and a camera. What began as a search for photographs slowly became something else: an invitation into the intimate rhythms of family life. Over four days, I shared meals, slept on a clay floor, helped with babies and tea, was dressed in traditional clothing, and gradually earned the trust of the people around me. Most importantly, I learned that sometimes the best way to truly see a place is to stop looking through the lens and allow yourself to become part of the scene.
For the season one finale of The Long Road Home, I sit down with musician, weaver, voice doula, and founder of Weaving Remembrance, Hanna Leigh.
We talk about the old ways of knowing that live in song, craft, ritual, and the hands of those who came before us. About listening for the whispers. About making things slowly, gathering in community, and finding our way back to something we may have never known we had lost.
Falling in love with a city on the Bosphorus