Paige Anna Grant

Daughter of a diplomat father, Paige Anna Grant spent more of her childhood in Asia than in the U.S. As a teenager in India, she met a Peace Corps Volunteer who influenced her to take that path to deep learning of another culture. She joined Peace Corps Nepal at 21 with a degree in Biology and a spirit of adventure.  “Shaligrams” describes her experience of a pre-industrial society:  the extraordinary set of skills Nepali villagers had evolved to sustain life, their practice of ancient traditions, and the winds of change that, in the 1970s, were just beginning to free women from a life of servitude. 
Paige went on to make her home in New Mexico, another place of ancient and vital traditions, and pursue a career in hydrology and environmental advocacy.  She has a son and daughter, and helped her husband Neil Williams to raise three stepsons.  As grandchildren have entered her life, she has asked that they call her “Muma,” borrowing the name from her landlady and close friend in Chiti Tilahar.

Paige's book is called Shaligrams & Cell Phones and is available in Paperback & eBook

The shaligram is the black cobble centered on this puja tray. It represents Vishnu, preserver and protector of the universe. It has been cracked, expertly, so the two halves fall open to reveal an ammonite fossil on one side and its "footprint" on the other. The halves nest back together with a barely visible seam. 
Knowing the secret contained in that beautiful black stone increases its holiness. It is a talisman of deep time. Ammonites first appeared in the fossil record about 450 million years ago and died out in the great extinction that killed the dinosaurs. They were entombed in ocean sediments before the Himalayan Range existed, and exhumed when India crashed into Central Asia 20 million years BCE, and the Himals buckled up at that continental seam.
Hinduism is an ancient religion, rooted in the Indus Valley during the Bronze Age. The shaligram on the puja tray is worshipped now as it has been for the better part of forever in human time. Following that deep dive into sacred tradition, the puja complete, the pujari will pick up her cell phone and get on with her day.