A Big Move


In case you heard it through the grapevine, yes it’s true. I have moved to India with my family. My wife arrived in late April with my eldest son Zachary; I stayed behind with my youngest son Noah as I finished up work and sold the house.

Zachary, now fifteen, was thrilled to go. He has read all the ancient Hindu texts there are to read, and performs pujas, he recites Hindu myths, he chants in Sanskrit. He is a practicing Hindu through and through. His middle name is Kartik, named after the Hindu god of Just War (as in “acceptable cause to war”, not “only war”). In India everyone knows him by his middle name.

My younger son not so much. He threw a fit when he found out not only were we moving, we were moving to India. He hates Indian food and was positive he will be miserable. He has lived in the same house for eight years (he is ten) and knows nothing else as home. He would prefer it if his best friend’s parents adopted him, thank you very much. He is coming around and accepting his fate, but it’s hard.

I am a poet with Scottish and English and Irish heritage. And yet, because I am married to a woman who is half Bengali, I qualified to get a PIO card (Person of Indian Origin). This the reason behind the name of this blog. I say I am a poet, because before I worked a 9-5 in the field of IT. I was breadwinner first and poet second. I was an IT person who wrote (and published) poetry. If I were to say I am a poet the vocation never sat right.

But now I am Mr. Mom — my wife is the one with a 9-5. I do not object to working again, but my goal is to be a poet first and whatever else comes my way second. We will see how this goes.

So a declaration: I am a poet…of Indian origin.


Joshua Gray

Washington DC native poet that now lives in Kentucky.

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