Rekha's Ramblings

 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.

  October is 'Mental health awareness month.  My mother, in fact, both of my parents always told us this," मागा म्हणजे मिळेल", "ask and you shall receive."  You may be going through a tough time, hurting, grieving but unless you ask for help or confide in someone, no one will know, no one can help.  There are plenty of resources available. Please reach out, find someone to talk to.  There is no shame in asking. There is always someone who cares. This year's show theme of my children's school marching band is based on the same.  I tell them and all their friends to please reach out. I and I know several other parents, who are available, willing to help in whatever capacity, but you must ask.  Do not be shy or feel ashamed. I am glad I have people to reach out to and I am not shy to ask for help when I need it. My ramblings on this Sunday!   

On our recent trip to India, visited Elephanta caves, they are on an island, just a short ferry ride off Mumbai. Several ferries leave for the island daily, all day long at about 5-10 minutes interval. There were ferries in front of us, back of us and the scene everywhere was pretty much the same. Besides the smog, there were plenty of seagulls hovering over these ferries. The hawkers were selling chips/Cheetos and people were in turn feeding them to the seagulls. Their behavior is so altered that we didn't see even one seagull diving for a fish but all of them circling the ferries, travelling the entire distance with them looking for Cheetos, just like the squirrels at Zion national park. We talked to one of the vendors, he said Kya Kare (what to do), he is very aware of what he is doing, how it is not good for the birds, the environment; however selling Cheetos is the only thing which puts food on his table, he has no other means of making money, he has no education. It was heart...

March 12, 1993; I was in a college classroom when we heard this loud noise, explosion, only to find out later that it was one of the series of bomb blasts in the city of Mumbai, when bodies started flooding at the casualty/ trauma ward of Nair hospital. Several times, mobs went crazy, rioting due to disrupt train schedule and I couldn’t get home on time, had to seek alternate means of travel to get home while I was in college in Mumbai.  A couple months ago my neighbor’s dog attacked me and I have been traumatized since, can’t walk on our street any more. That is the extent of my involvement in anything violent or tragic.  9/11, 26/11 happens and several successive mass bombings, school shootings including Sandy hook happened, and even though I was nowhere near them, it affected not just me but everyone. My then 11 year old son had panic attacks, night mares for days following Sandy hook massacre. Then one of the teenagers from our school was shot fatally by another.  It ...