World as Family - by Vishakha N Desai (Paperback)

About the Book

Vishakha N. Desai uses her life experiences to explore the significance of living globally and its urgency for our current moment. She reframes the idea of what it means to be global, considering how to lead a life of multiple belongings without losing local and national affinities.

Book Synopsis

A Vedic phrase asks us to "treat the world as family." In our age of global crises--pandemics, climate crisis, crippling inequality--this sentiment is more necessary than ever. Solutions to these seemingly insurmountable problems demand new approaches to thinking and acting locally, nationally, and transnationally, sometimes sequentially but often simultaneously. This is the mentality of the immigrant, the exchange student, the global native, and all who have made a life in a new place by choice or by necessity. Yet we suffer from a lack of the truly capacious thinking that is so urgently needed.

Vishakha N. Desai uses her life experiences to explore the significance of living globally and its urgency for our current moment. She weaves her narrative arc from growing up in a Gandhian household in Ahmedabad to arriving in the United States as a seventeen-year-old exchange student and her subsequent career as a dancer, curator, institutional leader, and teacher against the broad sweep of political and social changes in the two countries she calls home. Through her personal story, Desai reframes the idea of what it means to be global, considering how to lead a life of multiple belongings without losing local and national affinities. Vividly conjuring the complexities and exhilaration of a life that is rooted in many places, World as Family is a vital book for everyone who aspires to connect across borders--real and perceived--and bring to fruition the ideal of a global family.

Review Quotes

[Desai's] ability to pause, reflect, and reconsider makes this memoir a page-turner.-- "The Hindu"

Only rarely does a personal narrative succeed in providing fresh insight about the large currents of history defining our present moment. Yet that is precisely what Vishakha Desai has given us in World as Family. In recounting her story of evolution and self-discovery across continents and cultures, Professor Desai addresses profound questions about identity and belonging and offers a singular rebuttal to surging nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiments. What we are left with, ultimately, is a compelling vision of an open and expansive global society.--Lee C. Bollinger, President and Seth Low Professor of the University, Columbia University

There are few books which I carry with me as I explore new chapters of my life; this is one of them. World as Family forces you to think about culture, identity, and the world in its entirety, all the while exploring the messy, complicated nuances of reality. It is raw, personal, and feels like a warm hug in the midst of chaos. Young people often think about 'where is home?' The answer is right here in this book!--Shagun Sethi, MA Student, Columbia University

Who am I? Where are my roots? Can I have multiple identities without betraying those roots? Vishakha Desai's 'in-between' personal story of belonging as Indian, Asian, American, and human is passionate, honest, and moving. It is a powerful call for holding together the values of rooted global belonging without giving up on any part of one's identity.--Irina Bokova, former Director-General, UNESCO

About the Author

Vishakha N. Desai is senior advisor for global affairs to the president and chair of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. A noted scholar of Asian art and frequent commentator on the intersection of arts and contemporary issues, she is the past president and CEO of the Asia Society.