On substack
new essay on the long road home
In this weekโs letter, I write about my motherโs lifelong search for home after divorce, migration, and sacrifice uprooted the stability she once knew. Moving from house to house across Calgary, dreaming through open homes and lottery mansions, she spent decades trying to rebuild something that had already been lost generations earlier in India. As I return home to Canada with my own child and broken dreams in tow, I find myself tracing the same inherited longingโthe ache of living between worlds, forever searching for elsewhere, and wondering what it truly means to belong.
On the podcast
New conversation on The Long Road Home
In this episode of The Long Road Home, I sit down with Aditi Loveridge to explore what it means to belong without leaving parts of ourselves behind. We talk about cultural identity, queerness, motherhood, authenticity, and the invisible stories we inherit about who we are supposed to be. Aditi shares her journey from growing up as a brown girl in conservative Alberta to embracing her queer identity, and how creating spaces of belonging for others ultimately taught her that she, too, was allowed to take up space.
essays for the curious wanderer
read
a popular photo essay from india
ritual head shaving
Portrait of author in Chennai, India by Jayashree Sahithya
Meet Yamuna Flaherty
WRITER, MOTHER + STORYKEEPER
Yamuna Flaherty is a writer, mother and storykeeper devoted to helping others uncover and tell the stories that matter most. Rooted in two decades of global travel, inner inquiry, and creative practice, Yamuna weaves memoir, ancestral reflection, and soulful expression into everything she offersโfrom guided storytelling sessions to thoughtful essays and creative tools. Her work invites others to explore identity, voice, and belonging through the transformative power of personal narrative. Whether through one-on-one sessions, workshops, or her Substack, The Long Road Home, Yamuna creates spaces for meaningful connection and self-authored truth.
Falling in love with a city on the Bosphorus