Rekha's Ramblings

  This year marks the 30 th anniversary of me graduating from college, as an Occupational Therapist. This year will also be the year when I let my professional license go.  It broke my heart, but my heart was also not in it anymore.  I grew up in a household where getting a degree was not negotiable, whether you were a son or a daughter. My mother was a homemaker while my father was a working father.  There were several women in my extending family who worked full time, but they had help at home, in the forms of their mother-in law, their moms, or someone in their extended family.  We moved to the USA because of my job. There would be no external support when the time came to raise the children. We had not thought that far out.  Surely, I knew a few working moms but nobody was in the same situation I was, three children, two of them twins and a husband who would barely be there due to work conflict and there was no village for me to rely on.  It would...

November is the month of Thanksgiving.  One of my friends shared this "30 days of Gratitude challenge " with me a few years ago and today's challenge is "Growth".  The dictionary defines “growth” as the process of increasing in physical size, amount, value, or importance. In other words, it’s not just about getting physically taller but also growing your values, what matters to you, what grows your self-confidence.  In my opinion, Growth is based on your environment, the challenges you face. Some people thrive and become a better version of themselves when put under pressure, some not so. It also depends on how willing you are to learn, to get out of your box, to adapt to the situation, your circumstances.  My personal growth has always been through introspection, how I can be a better person than I was yesterday. It’s a journey, I am still learning.  There are many who continue to inspire me daily. I know my weaknesses, my flaws, my strengths, and I am trying t...

  Not too long ago, someone I deeply care about was going through a rough phase, feelings of loneliness and didn't know what to do, how to cope with it. Of course, we talked about seeing a therapist, counseling. While we were on the subject, he said “what do you know about loneliness, you always seem happy, I see all your pictures, you are always busy doing something. You are always smiling and happy." Hmmm, long pause.... What do I know about loneliness??? I know  plenty about being lonely, especially now, recent empty nester. My world revolved around my children and their activities. Now that they are gone, all the running around is gone. Sometimes it's very rough, especially on a weekend when everyone else seems to be busy but I am not. I wish I could show you how often I was sad and lonely....  I go through those days of loneliness, a lot. It was very rough and difficult at first. Now, I try to not be "alone" when I am lonely. I force myself to go out, be w...

 ASK and YOU SHALL RECEIVE!    This phrase was a recurring theme during my upbringing. I grew up in a closed catholic community in a tiny rural community outside of Mumbai. As a 3–4-year-old little girl, I was merely repeating what the adults were saying, asking for some sort of forgiveness for our sins, not knowing its implications. Little did I know that this phrase would be my lifeline, the biggest tool in my tool belt later in my life.   The then little girl in me had taken this phrase for its literal meaning. I had started asking, mostly for a bigger share of food, a bigger portion of a single candy bar which my grandmother had to divide into four.  But when I started going to school at the age of 4, my father, the smartest and the wisest person I knew at that time, an enormous source of wisdom, guidance not only for me   or my family but for my entire village, emphasized on this belief, “ask and you shall receive.” He then went on explaining what ...

  I , as a mother of three children have always looked forward to summer vacations ever since my first born started going to school. It didn't matter how hard or the extra work I had to put in towards planning, packing ; I looked forward to those times  we spent as a family, the getaways from the daily grind. They weren't all necessarily elaborate, fancy trips each year. Some years, we travelled internationally when time permitted and some years, they were mere road trips within our state or to neighboring states visiting friends or family. But, year after year,  I treasured the times spent together , each summer had a story and like they say, travelling is the best education one could get and I wanted my children to have that education.  Last year, however, I was disappointed as we couldn't get away due to scheduling conflicts. This trip , had it happened would have been special as it was their last final year of school. I was sad, heartbroken. But then, magic happe...

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...

  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...

Today is International Peace Day. While I personally have never suffered a true hardship as such (if you can call lack of electricity or running water 24/7, having to study in a candle light or having only a pair of flip flops as your only shoes for a whole year a hardship, then yes, I have had a hard life).  I did not have much while growing up but one thing I always had was a roof over my head, three basic meals, a loving family and above all, a place that I called home, I belonged to a village, a community. I had a sense of belonging. I was born in India and therefore an Indian, that was my identity.  Then opportunity knocked on the door, came to America and now I have not one, but two homes, my home where my family still resides and my adopted home, the United States of America. My children are privileged, they will always have a place that they can call home.  While I hear of the suffering of the refugees, I will never know what it is like to not have an identit...