potpourri 9

Too many events, people, and to-do’s happening around, and figured a potpourri would do well.

  1. I temporarily had left my brains in the attic when I created an evite and invited every desi lady in my google address book living within a 20 mile radius of me to come by on Friday. It was fun though, extremely tiring since the knee swells up and does not take orders from me, and I probably ran up and down the stairs at least 50 times that evening alone. Thank God for ice packs and Naproxen.
  2. I now have a little orchard, or more like a fruit farm in my home. The exchange of fruits on Friday eve left me with a double dose of what I had bought in the first place, and I went to just 4 homes. No, 5. The numbers don’t add up, but that’s not the pressing matter of the moment. Am wondering what I’d do with 38 red apples, 5 green apples, 11 clementines, 14 bananas, 8 pears, 4 peaches, and a box of red grapes. Fruit diet for the whole family for the next week or so alone isn’t gonna cut it. This after I’ve already made fruit salad, green apple pickle, and a large loaf of banana bread’s a baking in the oven. I even sent home a cousin with a bag of 10 apples this morning.
  3. For the very first time in my life I tied ‘rakhi’ to my 2nd cousin who would be my only older brother. I am the oldest on both sides of the family and by the time little brothers were born, I pretty much left coop. This guy is my only ‘anna’ (older bro) in that way and the last I met him was in ’98. He’s moved here with the wife, and it was quite exciting meeting him and someone whom I can call ‘vadina’ (bhabhi/manni). I did. Giggled quite a bit. She insisted I cut it out and call her by her name. 🙁 We later on discovered she’s related to my husband in some distant way. More fun, with the husband thrilled beyond words! (We hardly find any links to his family and hence the excitement. My side, it’s hard to find some one who is not related!)
  4. Last week son went to this Sanskrit camp. Well, He didn’t just go. I dragged him there with him kicking and screaming. His whine was that he was missing the games on TV, that it’s quite repetitive and not really “fun”, no one he knew who’d goof off with him, that he had to wake up early and be dressed by 8 am, and why on earth was he learning a language he’d never use. Not necessarily in that order.
  5. Interestingly, the guy has done very well and barks off random statements at our faces, all ending in either “aasthi” or “naasthi” which even the daughter and munchkin’s got the hang of now. He was thrilled with a “oo, now I can say bad bad words and you’d never know.” but was in for a shock when on two separate occasions, the husband replied (in sanskrit) and I also laughed and replied (in English) when he said something. The poor guy. Good thing is he’s taught the munchkin to count 1-20 and that ups her number counting to 6 languages. …and she says it musically too!
  6. There’s a small teeny review on Narthaki.com on our Kuchipudi dance ballet last month. My guru mentioned it to me and I was floored when I read it. Of course it wasn’t a hugely critical article, and maybe they were just words too, but the fact that I was mentioned made me very happy! I suppose it was because in certain ways it was my comeback performance and I jumped in towards the last minute, with my troubled knee and stuff, and the words chosen to describe me was indeed both a humbling and a crowing moment.
  7. There’s a Krishna song that my guru’s composed and I am dying to learn it. It is an expressive number and would be a very satisfying one to emote. Damned Chondromalacia Patella!
  8. Went to the Gem Show that happens every few months or so in the area. Mom wanted to add to the collection of her usual delivery of coral strands to all the ladies who ask for them back home. So I trudged in after driving for exactly 2.5 minutes. As usual, I’d hurry past the Indian jewelers and feast and grab anything that sparkles at the Asian stalls. I am in such awe of their hairpieces, and having 2 daughters at home, gives me enough excuses reasons to spend some cash there.
  9. The gem show’s a fabulous place for people watching. Every 3rd person you see there would be a desi. 98% of these desis will be Telugus. Every 2nd woman will have a set of parents behind her. Every 3rd woman would be pregnant; 3rd trimester pregnant. 95% of the non-pregnant women will have a kid and a husband in tow. (Husband’s primary purpose would be to carry the kid as strollers are’nt allowed inside). 50% of these husbands would have an impassive bored look on their face as they follow the wife with puppy dog devotion. The concentrated look as they focus on the wife’s behind or dupatta is endearing. Blink a second and the wife’s lost in the sea of colorful dupattas, and since all telugu women sound similar in throes of excited bead shopping, they’d remain clueless on their wife’s whereabouts, and hence the concentration. 30% of the remaining husbands would stand at a comfortable safe distance from the stalls, handing out credit cards or cash when asked, while swinging the baby’s seat, standing in a circle that hastily is formed that only we-suffer-together-clique that people in similar agonies are thrown into, indulging in IT lingo, Chiranjeevi’s entrance into politics, IT jargon, and did I say techy mumbo jumbo? The last 20% are the active particpants. It is not uncommon to see the husband push the wife aside and do the shopping for her. Place delicate strands of emeralds along her not so delicate neck and tell her “this looks gorgeous. Good value for money.” or chide her saying “oh no sweetie, the earlier one looked better for your color (of skin).” or even better yet “this guy is no good at all, the quality of beads are better from the NJ store, let’s go there.” Today one husband squeezed between me and another enough for me to lose balance (and am quite sturdy myself) to pull a row of amethyst triumphantly out and exclaim “there, combine this with the pearls and you can wear it with that pattu sari that your uncle bought for you for his daughter’s wedding”. Such sweetness that I had to leave the place before I threw up.
  10. I lost 4 pounds. Don’t ask how. I don’t know myself. ..and Ive been hogging on the boorelu (deep fried round balls of the same stuffing poli has) mom’s made.

Phew!

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