Veronica M.T. Benjamin, PhD

I’m a proud native of the San Francisco Bay Area, California (forever in my heart) and my ethnic roots go back to Trinidad (Afro-Caribbean), Ireland, and Norway. Yet a circuitous route laid out by the fates brought me to India in 2011.

I first moved to Vārānasī (also forever in my heart) for an M.A. in Indian Philosophy and Religion at Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U.). Immediately taken with Kāśī, as Vārānasī is also called, I stayed by the banks of the Gaṅgā for eight years, eventually completing a PhD focused on linguistic universals in the work of Bhartrhari, a 5th century CE grammarian-philosopher.

This thesis was accepted for publication by Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House in Delhi; you can check out the book here.

In 2017, I made my annual trip to Himachal Pradesh to escape the heat, when I met my future husband, Sanjeev, in the mountains of Manālī. By our second date I knew I wanted to spend my life with him, yet I knew nothing about his unique Gaddī culture.

We married in 2019 and I shifted to live with his family in the Chambā district of Himāchal Pradesh, near Dalhousie.

Ever since then, with the exception of two years back in America during the pandemic (with some ad hoc activism for Tyrell Wilson and Laudemer Arboleda in my hometown), I’ve been learning and adjusting to life as part of a Himachali family.

Beyond being lucky enough to live in one of India’s most breathtaking Himalayan states, in a fairly harmonious joint-family situation (shout out to my lovely nieces, to whom I will always be chāchī – “aunty”), I’m also privy to the traditions and lifestyles of the semi-pastoral Gaddī tribe.

I’ve started this blog as a way to share the vivid impressions that my Gaddī family and the surrounding landscape make upon me. It is also a way for me to stay engaged as a writer and pondered, so expect a variety of posts to come.