On November 11, the Poly community was lucky enough to speak with and hear from the distinguished author and intellect, Vishakha Desai. With her book, World as Family as the framework for the discussion, Poly students were given the opportunity to engage with Desai through the Q&A structured event. I was deeply moved by Desai’s perspective on identity. When reading her book, I found myself having a difficult time understanding how her mother was able to be both an ardent feminist and advocate and a woman who maintained her cultural tradition. To me, it seemed as though Desai’s mother’s feminism would be hindered by practices and values she chose to maintain. When given the chance to ask Desai about this dichotomy, she explained that identity does not have to be so clearly defined. We all have many identities, she shared. For Desai, she is an American-Indian, an Indian-American, a New Yorker, a woman from India living in New York, and so on and so forth. None of these identities