Well, hello. Namaskar.

Six years ago, on April 1, 2012, a legendary brown uprising came to an end.

We closed our beloved bunker after much consideration regarding the inexorable directions our personal lives were taking, stark changes in media consumption, and most importantly, the dramatic “rise” of the South Asian American community and its fortunes. You see, we optimistically thought our work was done. That our diaspora was prospering and that we were safe. After all, there was a Desi character on three out of four NBC sitcoms on “Must See TV”. Kumar was eating in the White House, not at White Castle. America had a President who could pronounce “Pakistan” better than some of us could. We were practically post-racial! And despite closing our bloggy doors, we still lived on via our SM Twitter account, a lone flame flickering in memory of what once was. What more could we mutineers need?

On November 9, 2016, that question ceased to be rhetorical; the presidential election had suddenly rendered it critical. Reeling, I emailed the visionary whose proposal led to the creation of Sepia Mutiny in the first place and asked him if his gut was telling him what mine was screaming at me.

Unfortunately, while the inclination to resurrect our big brown blog was almost mutual, stressful day jobs and demanding toddlers meant that reopening the bunker would not be possible. The turnkey option was no longer available. While I didn’t have kids myself, I was struggling with serious health issues, and I knew I couldn’t resurrect a sprawling mutiny on my own.

I had spent April 1, 2012 until November 8, 2016 waiting for a mighty successor to fill our enormous Bata chappals, and when I found no consensus regarding where our mutineers were meeting virtually to stay apprised of Desi tings and get active when necessary, I shrugged and thought, “how unfortunate”. My disappointment was tempered by a nagging suspicion that we were no longer needed, and that was why nothing had risen up to take our place. I made peace with it all.

The election of our current embarrassment-in-chief changed my perspective entirely and shattered my delusional tranquility. We were obviously not safe– almost no one was–and unfortunately, we needed a brown uprising now more than ever. Though many erstwhile readers exhorted me to reanimate a mouldering blog they loved and trusted, I demurred, waiting for others to step up, while I marched in protest, raged on Twitter via my personal account (plus Sepia Mutiny’s), and watched our country shrivel and decay until it was barely recognizable. No more. I am ready to fight.

Today, a new mutiny begins.