Four months of USA.... Of away from home.... Of closer to home!

August 10 2012, I came to USA, to stay.... This was just 4 months back.... Yet there are Years when you'll remain the same.... And days when you'll grow for no other reason than you have to..... Adolescence comes not once but again and again, visibly or not does not count.I have learnt to feed my family, be a mother, and even be a wife! India was girl-friend stuff, but US is serous business... Scrubbing floors, wringing towels, drying clothes, separating colours, lunch dates and dinner parties, no maid or hope of one.... But through it all you realize what you are capable of, and what your family means to you... That your daughter of 5 can and does help clean her toy space, that the most unconcerned man you knew can and does make poor efforts to help, and poorer jokes on not wanting to... And that as much as you do not like this having to grow up business.... You know you are being fine tuned to show what you are made up of!

I... I... It..... Ita.... Italian

Finally had good Italian food, reasonably priced in the US of A! Yayy... Away from the Indian restaurants.... Yayy... With my Indian loving huzzbands that's nothing short of achievement..... Thank you Olive Garden, and thank you for bringing our pizza so late,that you took it off our bill, double yayy.... Though my other half made me tip extra for their goodness.... But still, it left me feeling good... Not good, awesome, the food, the service, the cheese, the extra cheese, and just in a little measure, the tipping!

Anoushka... The super star...

I'm not the lovey dovey mom.... Not at all... I'm the strict Bengali mother... The one whose deepest love is only surpassed by her deepest scorn for all outward displays of affection...but sometimes I feel thankful for a daughter who can understand me, who can actually tell me: "mummy you only get angry when I don't eat" or "mummy you ave zero patience but you love me", she really says these things... And that "mummy you get spacey and cranky when you get up in the morning"! But I feel it's all worth it, being the bad mom, forcing her to eat, read, write, when her teacher writes about her: " Anoushka is our star student this week. She is a very hard worker. Her writing is super super neat and she can even write in cursive. She has been making great choices when playing with friends."

What have I got to show for it?

I just realize another year is about to zipped forever... Done with... Nothing much about what you can do about it... Nothing in-fact that you can do about it, except tweak the memories to suit your comfort level... and I want to remember what I got to show for 2012... For my own satisfaction.... 1) completed my B Ed 2) learnt to make rotis... And this means I will not starve with bare minimum resources.... Extremely important! 3) cried at Disney Land, I'm glad magic will always touch my heart 4) taught Anoushka how to read simple sentences, hopefully the gift of reading will be one of the best gifts I'll ever give to her.... 5) discovered first hand that even when you feel you have nothing to lose, you have so much, it's scary 6) and got my first IPhone... Can make a very lost person feel incredibly busy, Try it ;-)

Cook it!

A very dear friend once told me: " India mein thak ke mar jaoge, US mein pak ke mar jaoge" - in India you will die from bing overworked (thakna) and in the US you will die from being bored(pakna)! Ironically, the Hindi word for cooking is pakana too... And that's precisely what I'm doing in USA, leading the life of the Indian belle, cooking, eating, cooking, eating, and cooking some more! Not four months old on American soil, and I'm rolling out my chapatis.. And frying my chura matar! And I'm thinking.... Thinking what I love about it... What I detest about it.... And even when it's not the bed of roses... I still am tucking it and making the most of it! It grows on you like time... And is as uncertain as life itself.... The gypsy rings may be missing, but the wanderer is alive... Dying only after living.... Traveling only after returning.... And lest we forget.. Eating only after cooking!!!

Try, try, try again ........

Today's world is so perfect, every body is so talented, inspiring, so loving towards towards their spouse, gone are the days of husband bashing... It's muuah all the way, and I like it, bcoz I'm not like that.... I will not dance today, in case my music system fails... But I'm trying, trying not to build s dam, where there's no river to tame, just a stream to glide on!

Writing is therapeutic

Who has a sorrow? Pick up your pen! Who has a story? Of vanities of men? Who has a vision? Pick up your pen! Write of sunshine, And remember rain... Who has a moment? Pick up your pen... Let you heart write And be born again!

Starting to blog after a break...

I'm Thinking it's not so great to post n a blog that is so connected t you, with no anonymous factor built in, bcz a blog is a space where you cannot write freely, knowing people will have access to your inner life... We have been brought up to believe the perfect image counts. How then can you blog about the not so perfect moments, it's bad enough we have them, God forbid we blog about them! We are in San Jose now, what for a month? What I love, little A's school, weather, that I'm finally blogging from my iPad, that I speak to my mom so often.... What I dislike, the distance from my friends and family.. You can't really have it all. When I was very little I always wanted to apply jam on t sides of my bread, and that made my hands really sticky. Oh I was always greedy for jam, and life is one big chase for the jam pot! Any one form school days remember the jams we got at the school fete lucky draw, and the cycle we coveted?

2011 oops 2012

Just chronicling the things I want to remember...
Exams looming one day away..
Gods blessings carry me through!
MIL taking care of Puchi...
The road right now is all work n no play..
No play at all!
Lots of plan.. Afraid to breathe lest they blow away...
N a happy new yr to me!