January 14, 2008

Taare....a star

B and I watched a hindi movie this weekend after a long time. “Taare Zameen Par”, yes we loved it. I guess it is popular enough for everybody, so I will spare you from the details of the movie itself. Beautiful subject and even beautifully made, totally enjoyed watching a movie like this. I think I am going to get hooked onto watching movies again.
In the process we discovered that our baby (I think I should start referring to her as something else soon) sleeps undisturbed when we watch a movie in the same room.
B cannot refuse to sit with me to watch an indian movie as I can quote this movie as an example when he says noooooooooooo.
I wept when the song ‘Maa’ played, much to B’s amusement, but what the…even Advani has cried watching this movie!

Give away?

After becoming a mother I have wondered how parents give away their babies to a stranger. I am amazed by how determined they can be to accept something like this or how desperate the situation can be to take such a bold step.
Maybe my thoughts are too shallow to wrap my arms around something like this as I am an extremely possessive mom. (So much so that I did not call a day care provider who had advertised “I will be a mother for your child”. My thoughts: Hello a mother? Am I not alive and kicking?)
No situation can be judged unless you are in it, so my comments here are only a personal opinion. But still….

When I was doing my masters at a university in the US, I met a girl in the bus. She looked Indian, but when I heard her speak she had too strong an American accent, so I assumed she was an ABCD (if I may). It was her first day in school and she wanted me to show her where the library was so we walked into the campus together. When we introduced ourselves, she threw an American name at me and I was a little surprised and curious and had all these Whats and Whys in my head. She made it easy for me when she said “Are you from India, I am originally from there too, which part of India are you from?” When I said Bangalore, her eyes almost popped out and she said “That is where my birth parents are, I was adopted and got here by my parents”. And in the next few minutes described all that she knew about her birth parents, that they were construction workers, that they spoke kannada, and her original name was something else and her American parents did not remember what it was. She said that she had joined school to be able to study and earn enough to go to India and find her birth parents.

I felt really sad for her, here was a naïve girl who hardly knew anything about her birth parents and she had dreams of going to a far off place called Bangalore (all she knew is she needed a lot of money to go there), and find her parents who are construction workers. How easy can that be? What an irony that her parents probably got tempted with this offer when they thought their daughter can go to “Amrica” and be a well educated person, when the daughter’s sole reason to enter college after her high school was to make enough money to go to India to meet them.

Maybe I spoke to her on a day when she got all emotional on hearing the word Bangalore and she is fine and is like any normal person of her age. But she continues to haunt me to this day, hope she is happy where she is.

January 2, 2008

Happy 2008!

The New Year is perceived to bring changes, but what changes do you notice when you wake up on the 1st? You are exactly in the same situation as yesterday, as last year and nothing has seemed to change.
In my opinion, the New Year is like a podium, an opportunity to pause from the routine and rise up from your current situation and make that change you have been wishing to make everyday. The change may be something really small or life changing, but the will to make it is what counts. And now when you finally decide to make that change you are not alone, as a lot of people are doing the same. There is a lot of positive vibe in the air, and that goes a long way when you need that extra push.
I think everybody needs a day every now and then to pause and recharge their life. A day to do a status check and see if things are going the way they are supposed to. I think it helps a lot to do this; it has always helped for me.
For those who have had a fabulous time last year, hope this new one is going to be yet another. As you have been soaring high, continue to soar higher!
For those who have been victims of a storm, hope all those bitter memories are now left as learning experiences in your mind. Hope not a minute of your new year is wasted feeling remorse, hope your good days start now and never end.
Happy New Year to everybody, build your dreams today and see them turn into reality through this year!