Rekha's Ramblings

Today marks day 270 of the pandemic! We have been into this for 9 months, for some of us here in the USA, since the initial “lockdown and stay at home orders” were issued on March 13th.  These have been some really long 9 months and believe me when I say that, I was pregnant with twins once. The novelty of lockdown is long gone.  I am naive and I had really thought that this is America, here people follow rules, everyone would wear a mask, follow all the guidelines and it will be over in 3-4 weeks. But boy, was I wrong!!!  Now we are entering into its 10 th month and doesn’t look like it’s going to be over soon. Ya, the vaccine is coming but it is going to a while before everyone is going to be vaccinated.  If you think you are exhausted, think about a healthcare worker who has to be at work, 10-12 hours shifts, sometimes even longer, wearing all the gear. The numbers are going up, the hospitals are at their full capacity. And there is no time off, no going anywhere...

 I wish I had known this 25 years ago, back in the days without Google.  First Thanksgiving in the US. The then employer used to give free turkeys. I had never heard of or seen Turkey until then, didn't know what to do with it, so gave it to one of my colleagues. Second Thanksgiving in the US, by now heard of  and eaten Turkey. This time brought the turkey home, a massive ,> 10-12 pounds I would say.  My colleagues failed to warn me, they didn't realize that I was still fresh off the boat and that it would be my first time cooking a turkey and I had no family here to guide me.  Imagine the fiasco on Thanksgiving morning! My friends who came off the same boat with me didn't know any better either.  I put the still frozen turkey in the oven for 8 hours.... Obviously, it wasn't cooked. I don't know what we ended up eating...it stayed in the oven all night that night, I think.  My sister and I ended up fooling with it the next day, still clueless. Needl...

  Fall is in the air, almost to its tail end in our parts of Virginia.  I love fall, the colors, the mounds of fallen leaves, the shadow of the sun, the cold but still not so cold, bone chilling weather.  If I hadn’t come to the US, I probably would never know what “fall”, the “season” is really like, probably would have lived in Mumbai or Delhi.  If Mumbai, it would be green 24 x7, no cold weather. Delhi gets cold but don’t really know if they even have enough trees to have a fall season, I have never been there except in December /January.  I see pictures of my friends who live in northern India, in the mountains and the fall looks just as pretty as here. I have always loved fall, lived in the mountains of Tennessee but then was too busy with work, kids and didn’t really get out that much to enjoy it like I do now.  I have been enjoying these long leisurely walks by myself, spend as much time as I want, wandering, taking pictures, nobody to nag or whine, ...

  Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to write a book. When I was in elementary school, it was a fiction with some sort of magic happening, since those were the kinda books I used to read.   Later on, as I went to middle and high school, it went from romance, family drama, to spy novels in college and right now, I am at travel diaries. Who knows, tomorrow it might be about parenting or being empty nesters....Whatever fiction I was going to write, should have written it before I got on the boat or while I was still fresh off the boat in a foreign land. Now I feel like that ship has sailed. I can’t think in the mother tongue any more, I can converse in it as its automatic but cannot think and stopped dreaming in it a long time ago. Also being married to a person who speaks a different language other than mine, doesn’t help. He can speak if he tried  to  but I would rather him not…I am reading ‘A promised land’ by President Obama and I like his writing style and th...

  Happy Diwali to those who celebrate! For me, Diwali is a metaphoric defeat of Ravana, the evil so it indeed is time to celebrate. May the lights illuminate, enlighten you and bring you peace, joy, and love. And as you celebrate, please don't forget to think about our planet, the mantra is to "reduce, reuse and recycle" where and when you can. And oh, we are still in the midst of a pandemic and only way to be safe is to stay at home and wear a mask when in public. I miss my friends, dressing up for our Diwali party and hence rambling, on this Diwali 2020.