Katherine Russell Rich was in her thirties when she travelled to Udaipur to live and to learn Hindi. The upshot was the book 'Dreaming in Hindi' published in 2009. Here is an excerpt: Wierzbicka argues that emotionsderive from "cultural scripts," and as such are learned in the language of the culture. Perhaps this explains why, months into learning Hindi, I became keenly aware of a feeling I've never experienced before. It comes from outside me, fills me and the room. It's longing: for something I can't name but I know is unbounded, an object or state that's near divine. In English, the closest word for this emotion would be "melancholy," but it's a melancholy laced with joy and expectation - more like the Poruguese 'saudade.' These opposite qualities make the feeling nearly unbearably bittersweet, so transporting that I never want it to end. It is sharpest when I listen to certain haunting Hindi songs. The book ends with the customory credits offered by an author. Here is what she says about an editor, Anjali Singh. "In at the end, and she proved to be a writer's dream: deeply respectful, able to see the best in the work, and indefatigable in her arguments when she's absolutely right. Which, as it turned out, was much of the time." Katherine lives in Boston, where she teaches writing.
