Just a couple of days back a very close friend of mine shared some really sad news with me. One of her close relatives had taken seriously ill and was in the ICU. We both started talking about how we feel being so far away from our folks who live in India. I coudn't help but think about the vagaries of life, how being across seven oceans makes us all feel so helpless! Everytime there is a phone call from India at odd hours of the day my heat skips a beat! Is everything hunky dory back home in India or has someone ....yes, the mind can imagine the worst things at times. The very thougth that I will have to cover thousands of miles to reach my near and dear ones if in problems in India is nerve racking! By near and dear ones I mean my parents and my siblings. I am not being pessimistic but when you hear bad news you tend to put yourself in the similar situation and have your mind run a marthon !

My husband and I have thougth of going back to India for good sometime in the future! Being in a land where you are a second class citizen, where you are constantly reminded that this is not where you want to retire in your life makes me ponder about why we are here in the first place. For the green money? Far away from my culture, my people, my land! Is it really worth it? My father always says " don't worry about the parents, you have your lives to live, make the most of it wherever you are!" Yes dad you are right but it does pain at times to be so far away from you.
I do most definitely enjoy living in the land of opportunities, but when in a pensive mood, my mind starts wandering. I was telling my friend that I pray and hope I am close to my parents and siblings when they really really need me.

God bless my friend's relative!

Today is the day people are going to remember forever-BARACK OBAMA, the first ever black president of this country! I am happy to be a part of this century to see these turn of events unfold for this great nation. Had Martin Luther King Jr. been alive today he would have been one great example of a living person whose dreams really do come true.

Mr. President has a mammoth task of leading one of the world's greatest nations and he also carries with him the hopes and dreams of millions of americans who want to see their country along with him flourish and prosper even more with a sense of renewed spirit.

I hope he delivers and may god give him the strength and vision to uphold this nation's dream!
GOD BLESS OBAMA!

Today is the day maharashtrians celebrate Makar Sankranti along with scores of other Indians from different parts of the country (India) having different names for the same festival. This is what makes my country, India , so diverse and rich in her culture and traditions. A myriad of festivities, colour, foods associated with these festivities and etc is what keeps the country so vibrant!

I do miss being in India around the festival time. There is pure magic and delight in being a part of the festivals and there is so much to learn from them. More so if you are living with older people in the house who explain to you why the rituals are done with way they are done. Celebrating festivals anywhere in the world gives you feeling of purpose, a sense of pride about your religion and all that it beholds. Above all, I think, it gives you a sense of community.

Today when I was preparing the sweets for Sankranti I was taken back to my childhood days when my mother used to make "gud chappatis" for Sankranti. She still does! I am so proud of her for instilling in me a sense of pride and love for our religion and culture. That I still don't know a great deal about Hinduism is not important in this context. What is important is that I continue these traditions and practices and pass it on to my kids, to keep alive our rich culture. With each passing generation it is disheartening to see the kids not knowing anything about their religious practices or the likes of it. For me it is a bad thing. I myself have become lazy about some of them. Why? Have we started taking things for granted? Is that why? Or have we just stopped bothering about it? Whatever be the reason, I have decided I am going to make my children pride on their culture and religious practices. It is an enormous task for me but I am positive it is going to be definitely worth a try or should I say, worth a few hundred tries!

Jai Bharat!

Boy oh boy! Today's kids are smart or what! I was quizzing my 5 year old about something and he had some pretty sharp answers. He understood the look on my face ( it was an expression of "wow, how did he know that?") and said " I know mom I am smart". To be honest I did not like that coming from him (though heart of hearts I was proud of him). Yeah! Yeah! we want our kids to be confident and smart but whatever happened to modesty? Well! I do not expect my 5 yr old to undertand this virtue but that is where my role as a parent comes in. So I looked at him and said " sweetheart, we do not boast about ourselves ." His reply almost made my drop the utensil I was holding. He said " then why do we have a sentence I am smart?" I was so dumbfounded! I did manage to come up with some anwers which I only hope his little mind comprehended and believed!

What a way to begin the new year! Getting up on 1st morning, all excited about what the new year is going to bring in, I walked up to the TV room and guess what! Another bomb blast, this time in Assam, India. The first thought that went through my mind was "damn, enough is enough". What kind of a world do we homo sapiens inhabit today? A world full of nefarious activities, brutal killlings, power struggles -the list is endless and mind boggling.

The morning news totally dampens your spirit and makes you go about the rest of the day in a haze! I was in a state of shock like many others after 26/11. I was livid at what the terrorists had done to the city, to her soul, to her inhabitants! I feel so helpless, so vulnerable! The next day you hear some more horror stories of the kind happening else where on the globe. Is this the world we are leaving behind for our children? Think about it.

I am not a pessimist. I can see the good things happening around me too, but somewhere down the line I feel we humans are becoming terribly materialistic , at times also behaving like babarians. Where is the difference between the animals and us? Animals behave the way they do because it is a question of survial. It is for us too, but at the cost of someone else's life? Where have our powers of reasoning gone? Isn't that what differentiates us from the animal kingdom?

Tomorrow is going to be just the same! More heinous crimes happening somewhere, more people dying and the cycle is endless!

I am home alone right now! The kids have gone for their swimming lessons with daddy dearest. I was waiting for this "time for myself" since morning and when it did arrive I am hating it. Why? you may ask. I don't watch the idiot box because I am not much of a TV buff so there is no sound or anything of that sort to keep me connected to the human voice. In this country the silence around can be defeaning. Absolute pin drop silence. I can hear my own heart beats! That's when it suddenly dawned on me that living alone can be a horrifying experience for many. Ofcourse, those who live alone do have some activities of some sort to keep themselves mentally and physically active. But when you are in those weird moments all alone to yourself, then what? I am sure as humans we do have those moments at times. Someone rightly said an empty mind is a devil's workshop.
Right now all I am doing apart from blogging is looking at the door and wondering when the 3 men of my life will start pounding on it to have me let them inside the house! AHA! I hear them! I am very happy that the "time for myself" time elasped pretty soon! Adios to you devils!