POEM + CONTEXT
AUTHOR NARRATION
Read by the author in the original English.
SERENE AS STABLE CAIRNS
A cairn is a deliberately arranged pile of stones—often a marker, a guide, or a memorial.
On trails where an ordinary path can disappear into rock, cairns can make the route legible. Their apparent simplicity depends on placement and balance: each stone rests upon another, and the whole becomes a quiet sign of direction and endurance.
In national parks, official cairns may be maintained as navigational markers. The National Park Service advises visitors to leave them as they find them rather than adding new stacks that could misdirect hikers.Learn about trail cairns
A National Park Service cairn overlooking the coast in Acadia National Park, Maine.
NPS / Victoria Stauffenberg · public domain
A conical stone cairn in a broad, rocky landscape.
Bernard Spragg · CC0INDIA + THE TECHNOLOGY WORKFORCE
Nasscom’s Strategic Review estimated a 5.43 million-person employee base in FY2024.
NASSCOM STRATEGIC REVIEW 2024Nasscom reported this industry-wide share in its 2025 Women in Tech announcement.
NASSCOM WOMEN IN TECH 2025USCIS reported 283,397 India-born beneficiaries among 399,395 approvals in FY2024.
USCIS FY2024 REPORTThe same USCIS report groups systems analysis, programming, support, and other computer work together.
USCIS FY2024 REPORTON THE POEM
The point of this poem is not the virtuosity of its language. It is the act of acknowledgment itself.
I do not consider “Ode to Female Indian Software Engineers” very “good” from the perspective of its language, and that is somewhat intentional. Instead, the poem is intended to make a statement: in publishing a book—a substantial artifact representing myself—I want to take an entire page in it to express gratitude and recognize this group of people who have been such a blessing to work with throughout my life.
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