Eleventh grader Natalie Hampton had always loved school. That changed in seventh grade, when fellow students at the private all-girls L.A. middle school she attended began cyber bullying and taunting her, even physically attacking her on four occasions. She almost always ate lunch alone and developed migraine headaches and gastritis. It was a common case of “mean girls” at work. Why do some girls become bullies around age 12 or 14? Does growing up in L.A., with its emphasis on looks and wealth

I analyze books and scripts for production companies to ascertain their viability before they are acquired. This is an example of the kind of analytical work I do.

When she was 10, my daughter told me she didn't want to go to college. Keya had just danced in the Joffrey Ballet's Los Angeles production of "The Nutcracker." Tiring rehearsals, poky wigs and stern ballet mistresses hadn't discouraged her. Keya did a pirouette, stretching out a slender arm. "I'll get a degree," she said reassuringly. "I just want to dance first." She already understood that the physical peak for dancers is about 16 to 28 and didn't want to waste time. I was silent. It's commo

I’d read about it in stories like Heidi and I ate paneer, India’s sole contribution to cheese making. But the closest thing to Western fromage I’d tasted was processed, tinned cheese, the only kind you could get in India till the late 1980s. It mimicked an English industrial product from the World War era – thick, yellow, tangy, hardly subtle. With nothing to compare it to, we liked it well enough. It was the filling in tomato-cheese sandwiches and my Lieutenant Colonel grandfather munched it

Growing up, I moved all over the world with my parents, professors who went wherever the jobs were. Before settling in Los Angeles at 26, I never lived in one town for more than a few years, and I felt rootless. Food became a way for me to connect the dots between the places I had been and the ones I was going to. I'd known no one else who felt similarly—until I met the family of my husband, Sanjiv Bajaj. The Bajajs are Sindhi, a people from the Sindh in the Indus Valley, a northwest corner of t

November 7 and I am crying happily into my morning tea as I read the latest post in one of my two Facebook election support groups — Hillary Clinton for President in 2016 and Pantsuit Nation. My notifications have been pinging endlessly since my friends added me to these groups a few days ago. Before that I had become very anxious about the upcoming election and its possibly disastrous results. There were tears of frustration, worried moments wondering what the future held for my daughter and m

My daughter Keya and I have a tradition for the last day of school. We go to Trails Cafe in Griffith Park, where she orders a snake dog and an old-fashioned root beer. We recall the year’s high and low points, and I listen as she tells me which teachers she liked, what subjects she found interesting and what her classmates’ summer plans are. Over the break, we don’t think about school at all. Then, the week before it re-opens, we focus and prepare – buying school supplies and clothes, marking o

Becoming a parent is a wondrous thing. Balancing home and work can be less wondrous – a parental juggling act of being present for the family and earning a living. To have more time for children, one parent occasionally scales back work. In my case, I’d had a career and waited to have a baby, so I wanted to be home with my newborn. In Los Angeles, where childcare costs are exorbitant, it also made financial sense. For someone else, it’s the desire to start a business or the consequence of separ

It was Diwali, the Festival of Lights last week. In India, where I come from, Hindus were cooking up a storm, visiting friends, celebrating the triumphant return long ago of Rama (the hero of the ancient epic,the Ramayana) to his kingdom of Ayodhya after defeating his opponent, Ravana. So at its heart, Diwali is a celebration of the victory of good over evil. Ironically, a few days earlier, a Muslim man was brutally beaten to death in North India for his transgression of eating beef. What? How