This photo is of a small bronze idol of Annapurna devi, the Hindu goddess of food and nourishment and an avatar of Parvati, the wife of Shiva. The idol is of great significance to my family, as it has been in my family for over a hundred years. After my parents had moved to the United States from India and settled in Massachusetts, my grandmother gave them this idol so as to continue the tradition of passing this statue on from generation to generation. It has played a symbolically vital role in my parents’ immigrant story, because even as they have created new lives for themselves in the US, this idol provides a connection to my dad’s ancestral village in India and has been a constant of the two most recent major migrations on my dad’s side of the family. When my grandparents first moved from their ancestral village of Manthani to the metropolis of Hyderabad, part of a massive movement of Indians from villages to cities in the mid twentieth century following India’s independence, they made certain to bring this very important statue with them, as it provides a connection to their village and a reminder of their origins. This idol has now not only made the journey from a village to a city but also across the oceans to a new country, where it continues to play the role of being a reminder of our roots as we now make our lives in a new continent. Eventually, I will keep this idol with me, and wherever I may live in the future, it will continue to remind me of my family’s many migrations and my culture’s ancient past. 

– Pranav

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant