Ah, Google. What would we do without Google? Something that didn’t even exist ten years ago is now a search engine that dominates the market. I use it for work, I use it to amuse myself, and at least three times a week, I Google myself. Is that too personal? Should I not be admitting that?

I think most people who are computer savvy Google themselves often. How can you resist the curiosity? The potential ego stroke…or getting knocked down a few pegs? It satisfies that need to know that you exist in this strange new world of the Internet… that an entire community moving to cyberspace hasn’t rendered your basic existence null and void.

And, lo, here are some of my favorite search results:

The Mala Mala Game Reserve in South Africa.

The Global Mala Project (I always knew I was international).

The Mala Ocean Tavern in Lahaina, Maui. I wonder if they would comp me drinks if I went there? Someone want to buy me tickets to Hawaii so I can find out?

Mala Bhattacharya, a noted soprano. Hey, I had NO idea I could sing! Who’dathunkit? But it makes you wonder…does she ever Google herself and stumble upon my name and feel the same sense of strangeness, of connectivity?

It is sort of gratifying to see that someone who shares my name is in a nontraditional field for Indian-American women, just like I am. We’re both creative, both out there doing what we love. We’re the untamed soul of something. Possibility, perhaps?

Last, but not least, when I typed my name into the search field on YouTube, I came up with this lovely gem from 1959’s Love Marriage, starring actress Mala Sinha and my first ever cinema boyfriend, Dev Anand: