IMMIGRANT TRANSFORMED

A retired scientist and professor of biology tells the story of her life, including her immigration to the United States from India.

In these pages, Moorthy tells her own tales of childhood mischief, her immigration to New York City, her arranged marriage, and how she balanced a successful career with raising a family. She was born in 1945 as the youngest of seven children in a rural village in tropical southern India that she calls the “Land of Coconuts.” “Growing up,” she writes, “I listened to so many stories told by different members of my family…each one was narrated in the teller’s own unique style, with flair and little details that made the tale very attractive to its listeners.” After graduating first in her class at Thiruvananthapuram-based Kerala University, the author moved to the United States, where she eventually obtained a doctorate in cell biology from New York University. The author effectively recounts her academic career, which included postdoctoral research at Princeton University and more than 30 years as a professor at Staten Island’s Wagner College. However, the book’s most impressive feat is its ability to capture the author’s mixed emotions of awe, fear, and curiosity as a new immigrant. As someone who attended Catholic missionary schools, the author notes her shock upon visiting Times Square for the first time in the late 1960s, where she inadvertently paid a quarter to see a pornographic peep show. Other humorous stories of her early years in America include a Thanksgiving dinner during which her accommodating but naïve American friend offered her “vegetarian” stuffing that was cooked inside a turkey. Many chapters are devoted to her experiences as a mother raising two kids “who had to constantly navigate between their Indian roots and their American identities.” Readers seeking a more detailed account of Moorthy’s career as a geneticist may not be satisfied with the book’s coverage of it. However, the memoir is full of poignant and amusing anecdotes that speak to the experiences of many Indian immigrants.

An engaging memoir of a scientist’s international life journey.