Rukmini callimachi biography

Rukmini Callimachi was born in Bucharest, Romania, when it was still under the rule of communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. In 1979, five-year-old Callimachi fled the country with her mother and grandmother by boarding a train to Germany.

Her father, a pediatric surgeon, stayed behind to trick the authorities into thinking that they were returning. In retaliation, the regime relocated Callimachi’s father from the capital to a rural clinic.

Rukmini callimachi biography

He later joined the rest of the family in Switzerland, where they were granted asylum.

Callimachi’s family immigrated to the United States in the 1980s when she was 10, and settled in Ojai, California. After experiencing discrimination in Switzerland, Callimachi felt embraced by her American classmates’ acceptance of, and curiosity about, her Romanian background.

She went on to earn her BA in English literature from Dartmouth College and an MPhil in linguistics from the University of Oxford.

Callimachi began her journalism c