"This was before he was my grandfather, before he was Papa. Before his visit to a new country defined his family’s future. Americanness was only a hope."
"My earliest memories are of garish red and green kitsch Christmas lights, some black faces but more white ones, set against chalk walls and the whiter still sand and unapologetic deep blue of the Indian Ocean, returning relentlessly to it the way we return to each other, in waves. Accompanying this visual is always the sound of Malaika."