Occasionally a postcard would arrive in Seattle, where Ruma and Adam and their son Akash lived.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Unaccustomed Earth'

Akash Jain, a 37-year-old from Detroit, manages the National Basketball Association's business affairs in India.

BBC: Building sporting dreams in India

He hated stranding Ruma with Akash so often, he said, especially now that she was pregnant again.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Unaccustomed Earth'

Jadeja, 32, has been included alongside Test batsmen Virender Sehwag and Akash Chopra in Delhi's 15-member squad for this season's Ranji Trophy.

BBC: SPORT | Cricket | Jadeja to make return

It was her mother who would have been the helpful one, taking over the kitchen, singing songs to Akash and teaching him Bengali nursery rhymes, throwing loads of laundry into the machine.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Unaccustomed Earth'

It was the house that was her work now: leafing through the piles of catalogues that came in the mail, marking them with Post-its, ordering sheets covered with dragons for Akash's room.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Unaccustomed Earth'

It would mean an end to the family she'd created on her own: herself and Adam and Akash, and the second child that would come in January, conceived just before the move.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Unaccustomed Earth'

Overseeing her clients' futures, preparing their wills and refinancing their mortgages, felt ridiculous to her, and all she wanted was to stay home with Akash, not just Thursdays and Fridays but every day.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Unaccustomed Earth'

In New York, after Akash was born, she'd negotiated a part-time schedule at her law firm, spending Thursdays and Fridays at home in Park Slope, and this had seemed like the perfect balance.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Unaccustomed Earth'

When her parents visited her in Brooklyn, after Akash was born, her father claimed an armchair in the living room, quietly combing through the Times, occasionally tucking a finger under the baby's chin but behaving as if he were waiting for the time to pass.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Unaccustomed Earth'