Devis, light-keeper goddesses, are abound as a 'desi' sisterhood is formed in Jackson Heights, Queens.
To outsiders the residents of Jackson Heights are clustered as the “Indians in Little India,” or the “Bangladeshis in Little Bangladesh” or “the Pakis in Little Pakistan.” They are a seemingly indiscernible gang of people who sound foreign, are shades of brown, eat spicy food, own all the 7/11s, and are the mob creators of traffic jams in their yellow splashes of cabs. But if you were to swoop in and look closer, peek through the windows and take a listen, you might be touched and drawn in by the lights and lives of the inhabitants whose stories are so different, yet as human as everyone else’s. You would be mesmerized by Ujala didi, a hesitant ‘devi’ (goddess) who abandoned her destiny to escape her incomparable loss. You would fall in love with Rupali and Sonali, sisters who followed different paths that still led them to each other. You would be moved by the plight of the ‘off-the-boat’ Tul Tul whose husband abandoned her after a month of marriage, leaving her to her own devices in a foreign land. You would be bemused by the matchmaking efforts of the intractable Khala’amma. Unknowingly, you would find yourself amidst a blossoming rebirth of a sisterhood of women who begin to discover their own devis and thus begin to redefine girl power, ‘desi’ style.
