Portrait of author in Chennai, India by Jayashree Sahithya
Hi, I’m Yamuna — 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.
At eighteen, I set off for Asia with an enormous backpack stuffed with everything I thought I might need. Over the months that followed, I learned to let go of the things weighing me down—and eventually, of people, places, and versions of myself, too. Looking back, I can see that my first backpacking trip was about more than exploring the world. It was the beginning of learning how to let the world change me. Travelling Light is a story about youth, freedom, and discovering what’s worth carrying with you through life. Read the full essay on The Long Road Home.
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.
Pushkar Mela, Rajasthan, 2010, 35mm
Falling in love with a city on the Bosphorus