25 Things About Me

1. I love make-up though I don't have the patience to apply it. So I have loads of barely used foundations, eye shadows, blushers..
2. I can read only when we are travelling - in trains, flights, buses. I find it difficult to read at home. Lucky that I have been travelling a lot.
3. I used to love reading and sometime after B-school started finding reading a chore. I have started reading again over the last 2 years and am enjoying every bit of it.
4. I love baking and have considerably expanded my experiments in the last year including baking a bread. It turned out quite good if you must know.
5. I am an idol of neatness in my house, however, find myself throwing clothes on the bed, leaving shoes all over when I go back to mum's place.
6. I love flowers and am super excited about the new stephanodus plant we have recently bought. I am also thrilled when my christmas cactus blooms every year.
7. I don't have a green thumb and have killed plants in the past. Fingers crossed for the stephanodus.
8. I am not a good liar. I tend to be quite transparent about my feelings and they become evident even if I don't say anything.
9. I love dressing up and always plan ahead what I want to wear. Though I am quite undecisive and always try 2-3 things for an evening out.
10. I love calling people over and have cozy get togethers with wine, conversation and simple food. I also like decorating my house up when I call people over.
11. Travelling is my passion - I love researching places to go to, where to eat etc. I cut out articles from travel sections of newspapers and magazines for my wishlist scrapbook.
12. I love the vibrancy of NYC, the choice of things to do, places to eat, shows to watch and people to meet.
13. I miss going to India more often. I feel depressed that everytime we visit, less and less things are familiar.
14. I want my children to grow up amid the sights and sounds I grew up with. I want them to recognize the smell of jasmine flowers, the thrill of lighting up the house on diwali, the fun of community festivals like durga puja. I know I can bring all this to them in the US as well but I will much prefer to raise them in India.
15. I love hindi movies and my tolerance for them has increased since I moved abroad. There are very few movies that I strongly dislike.
16. I think I am lucky to have found the hubby. He is a much better person than I am.
17. I love walking ..and swimming. Hubby calls me a fish.
18. I love dancing ..especially after a couple of drinks when some hindi music is playing..
19. I don't like my job and usually don't like talking about it. I am having a bad day at work and thats why this is even mentioned here.
20. I strongly believe in work-life balance and like my weekends free and taking my whole holiday quota for the year. Till now I have managed pretty well with this.
21. I had bangs cut for the first time last year in summer and unexpectedly loved them. I got a lot of compliments and I NEVER get complimented on my hair.
22. I feel like I haven't found my calling yet - what I would really love to do for a living. I get bored with things pretty quickly.
23. I am talkative and funny when I am with friends, people I know. However, become totally shy and quiet among strangers.
24. I have realized that I am becoming more picky about people I hang out with and less tolerant of rudeness or people who don't know their manners.
25. My new year resolution is to celebrate all festivals or at least mark them somehow even if with a small token. I don't like days which used to be all so important when we were growing up slipping by unnoticed now.

India trip musings

I had a fantastic trip to India end of Dec. After a few years, it felt like a holiday when I could relax and catch up with friends. Last few years India trips have been a haze rushing from one city to other. One trip, we were in 4 cities in 3 weeks! So this time I decided to put my foot down on various parents and in-laws plan to take us to various religious places or cities to meet random extended family who I am sure is not exactly dying to meet us. We were in Bombay for a week and Delhi for 2 weeks. Bombay was so cool - Sourabh and I used to hang out all day discovering coffee shops and meeting friends for lunch. We went and had lunch in cafe Leopold's, coffee at Mocha and a place called Moshe's which was exactly like a restaurant in NY city. We spent time with papa in the evenings and went to Haaji Ali juice center with him (strawberries and cream are to die for!). I could also catch up with a lot of friends who have been very close at various points in my life, who I have sort of stayed in touch with but not had a proper chat session in years. Delhi was more boisterous family time, playing with the niece, jalebis and milk every night, frequent trips to Wengers, lunch at Big Chill, nostalgic trip with old girl friends to the railway colony.

It was very hard to come back, especially as I was coming without Sourabh to cold NYC. But I must say, once I was here, I really enjoyed the snow, getting back to the old routine, shopping with crazy discounts everywhere. Maybe I have finally accepted that India is no longer where I live and may never live again. It will always be home and trips back always full of nostalgia but maybe where I am is not half bad and it is time to build my own traditions, my own memories here which my children can feel nostalgic about. That the memories I have no longer exist with my family scattered with me caught in the cross-fire. That every trip back home comes with a considerable amount of pain as I come face to face with my parents separation and the loneliness they live with.