Snatches of Conversation

Janmashtami, as proven in the past, is an occasion that provides the setting for many an interesting conversation. Consequently, i love to celebrate the festival with my children. This year, yet again, the 'Doubt of the Year' award goes to Nidhi Santosh.

"Will Krishna be inviting all other Gods to party in our house on the night of his b'day?"

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Nidhi's new school, here in America has Rocky the Coyote as it's lucky mascot. The children call themselves Cool Coyotes. When i read this fact on the school website and reported it to Nidhi, she said,

"Cool Coyote? Sounds like cool 'kozhakattai....'"

:-)

One of the reasons i couldn't select the name Kirtana for Aditi - Nidhi felt it sounded like 'kirukku'. Such a beautiful name Kirtana, spoiled forever in my mind thanks to Nidhi. A talent she picks up from her father. Mr.Santosh kills beautiful songs. He will sing it in such a way that u will be disgusted whenever u hear that song again, never mind that u liked it immensely before. We were just married when i happened to mention i liked the 'Zara zara mehekta hai..' song, the kind gentleman didn't lose a second before breaking into the song(beautifully i must add), but accompanied by such gestures, scrunching up his nose, waving his hands to clear the air, looking arnd suspiciously etc. as if someone has 'polluted the air'. That was the first time. since then he has killed many such using his famous techinque of translating a song into bengali or bihari... As for me, i learned my lesson quite fast and never admit i like a song in his presence.

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We were at a lake here and watching a couple of birds swimming in the water. we assumed they were ducks when suddenly they rose up and flew high up to join a flock of birds flying home. Needless to say we were startled.
Santosh : Did u see that? Those were not ducks. Can ducks fly so high?
Me : then they must be goose or geese or something like that.
Nidhi : Or they might be aliens. Did u see if they had only one eye?
Santosh and Me : ???

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Little Aditi has added a new word to her vocabulary since coming here. She finds everyone here telling her 'Hi, baby', 'bye, baby' so enthusiastically that now she no longer says 'tata' but has adopted the American style of 'Haaai' accompanied by waving her hands. This serves for bye too and u will be greeted and sent off with a very cute 'Haaaai' with a hand-wave if u visit our house now. Appa and Nidhika are smitten and spend an extra few mins for this whenever they leave for office/school.

One day, i was giving Nidhi some instructions from the top of the stairs when she was leaving for school. Aditi was with me and not to be outdone, she also shouted something loudly towards Nidhikka and beamed at us saying 'see, i can do it too'. 

the other day i was speaking to my mother on the phone. Appa and Nidhikka called out to me and were much amused to find Aditi holding her hand to her ears as if she's clutching a phone and she was walking arnd seriously blabbering something....

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One thing our house never lacks, thank God and thank the children - Entertainment.



 

The Move

Couple of weeks ago, Nidhi, Aditi and i took a nap in the afternoon. what was unusual abt the nap was that it lasted 4 hours. 4 hours is the longest i have slept without interuption(by Aditi) in the past year. And that's during night. During the day, if i get an hour's worth of nap-time then i beam the whole day as if i have been to Disneyland. So 4hours during the day was like  absolufantasticamazinglygreat. i was the first to wake up and loooked out of the window in amazement...

Hills, greenery,  palm trees, swimming pools.... i was in a hotel room. i realised with a start we had done it - Moved to the United States. In what can be termed as the quickest decision we have ever taken and the fastest move we have ever done - in two weeks time we had disposed off our things, packed the rest into cargo, got our visa, booked our tickets and flown!

One of the most difficult aspects of the decision was the journey - an 8hour and 11hour flight with a 11-month baby, with transit in between - altogether 25hrs. one word - nightmare.

Just a month ago we had come back from India and that was Aditi's first flight journey ever. We travelled together not knowing what to expect from Aditi. It was a midnight flight and Aditi did full 'kottam' in the airport. The bright lights and new sights added to her excitement. It didn't help that Nidhikka started playing in the play-area. Soon Aditi, Appa and Nidhikka were rolling arnd having fun. (Me? i was clicking pics and resting my back) Once we boarded the flight, i gave her the milk-bottle when the flight started to take-off. Aditi dozed off....and woke up after the flight landed! The 3hr 45min journey i didn't move a muscle coz she was sleeping in my lap (Thank you Indian Airlines - no basinette). The return journey was the same except she slept half the time in her Appa's lap.

And now, the 25 hour journey loomed in front of us. We opted for transit coz i couldn't imagine a 19-hour continous flight - what if i didn't get to move a muscle yet again. So, transit it was. A couple of hrs to/at Abu Dhabi and then onto Heathrow, London. 8 hours. She slept, i didn't move.

It was the London i had read abt in books - grey skies, rain. The crowd at the Heathrow Airport reminded me of Central Station. Nidhi, Aditi and i found a big bathroom(a family bathroom) and emerged an hour later cleaned and 'make-up'ped to find Appa shaking his head mumbling 'Ladies!'. He was then graciously given 10 mins to freshen up and join us in exploring the duty-free.

Nidhi had a major concern. The last couple of years (on and off) she has come across explanation of the Indian freedom struggle thru me, books and her teachers. She was deeply affected and had declared that she would never set foot in England. (if ever we took a holiday in europe, it would be switz, france, germany, never uk). Now here we were, in the middle of all these white-looking people, Nidhi looking arnd scowling at whom she felt was a Britisher. On top of that she had spent the major portion of the flight journey curled up in her seat. she was so tired that even the in-flight personal entertainment system couldn't keep her awake. sleeping in a curled up fashion can only make u more tired and here she was - totally irritated. To distract her, i pointed to all the shops and said 'Choice is urs. Which one u want to go to?' And guess what? She picked the book store! Overjoyed. That's me.

The 11hour journey from Heathrow to Los Angeles was completed with walking, playing, eating and a little bit of sleeping (in the basinette this time). Upon arrival, Santosh drove us to the hotel in a Hertz car(which had a GPS and a paper with directions written by me from the internet on how to reach the hotel, but we shall not disclose which one was followed.) Anyway, the most important thing was we reached the hotel in one piece. Had dinner and slept for sometime and woke up arnd midnite unable to sleep further.

Jetlag. The one thing that eluded explanation no matter how much i read/asked others abt it. Now, we understood. In simple words it means having ur lunch, going to sleep for a short nap (thinking u'll get up and explore the place in the evening) and waking up at midnite feeling so hungry (it's lunchtime) u cannot go back to sleep no matter what u eat. Three days of this went on. For the kids, it went on for a week. there is only so much you can do to adjust the food and sleeping times of children. Santosh and i would plan our day arnd the times the sleep and wake-up times for Nidhi and Aditi. Searching for a house, school-admission, everything else could wait. In a week's time they were ok. And, after that, in a week's time we found an apartment. The next day we finished Nidhi's school admission. She started her classes from the first day the school began.

Two weeks has passed by since we moved into this apt. Even now, when i am engrossed in a book or household work and suddenly i look outside i am surprised to find myself in America. I pick up the phone i am surprised to hear an American accent answer. i am amazed at how easy it is to walk across busy roads at signals with Aditi's stroller. So many parks, such beautiful grass on the curb-side. And, so many beautiful birds. we spotted a couple of hares in the hedges at Nidhi's school. Such smiling people at the super-market counters(does it matter if they r genuine or just doing their job). Wishing good-morning to strangers on morning walks.

But, all said and done, i couldn't help but ponder the basic question that kept me occupied ever since i heard abt this move of ours. How on earth can an entire nation to this? And, a developed nation at that. What abt the countless Indians who have set foot upon this land before me? All educated, intelligent people. How could they do this! i went against all my beliefs and my whole system (of education) was shaken. i had decided to check for myself when Santosh got down for a re-fill - what was it that flowed from the nozzles.. "How on earth can anyone, let alone an entire nation, call a liguid 'gas'?" And then i came across the word Gasoline. Ah, peace.

The Move is not yet complete. There r a lot many formalities remaining including the most important one of me getting a DL. There were lot of hurdles we faced(and overcame) when we had to wind up everything in Oman. How did we do it 2 weeks? The day before i made my decision i spoke to a friend in America. She asked me to take one day at a time. That's what we did. And, that's how we landed here. i dunno how long we'll be here. India (and parents) are always on our mind. But, i am going to take my friend's advice again. And, live one day at a time...
 

Long time, No write

The last post was three months ago...

I just read it and found myself in an altogether different place. Updates :

a) The key for number one has stopped working on my laptop. So instead of pulling out the on-screen keyboard everytime i make a list, i find myself using a), b), c)...

b) Aditi has started walking. Running anrd all the time now. And, the first b'day is yet to come. She had already been standing on her own couple of months ago. In her tenth month she took a step fwd. Nidhi and i saw her and clapped as if it was the first wonder of this world. After a week of one-step-at-a-time, she progressed to two at a time. then, Nidhi and appa started a new game 'Come to nidhi/appa'... Within a week she started running arnd.

So Aditi walked on her own in her eleventh month. (Old readers of this blog(no one i think and look at my optimism - i am saying readerS) know i like to spell things out so that i won't squint at the date and calculate when i get back to this blog when i am older and want to read abt what Nidhi and Aditi did when they were small. Phew. i must move this warning to a sidebar.)

c) We went on a one-month trip to India, needless to say Aditi's first and Nidhi's 28897828636th. Aditi met all her relatives, rather everyone came to meet her and she was as pleased as punch. so much so when we went on a train journey/when i visited a govt office, she assumed everyone's here to meet her and grinned her very best. it didn't help that people started responding to her and she seemed to really believe everybody is her's. after wondering how would Aditi take to india, i couldn't ask for anything more. Thank you, God & thank you Aditi. Meanwhile, Nidhi did her best to chill out in her ammamma's place all the time. the trip to india needs another post, so details later.

d) As i am typing this, i am as usual on the look out for Aditi and what do i find - she has opened my purse and is playing with... wait-a-minute... is that a dollar? OMG... where am i... which brings me to my next post. the biggest update of all.... The Move.