At Last !

We were almost dying of anticipation but this just revived us...what fun !

Stomach and Parking Woes

I've had a bad scare yesterday. For the last two days, my stomach has been feeling hot and spicy after each meal, until things came to a bad pass yesterday afternoon when the condition began to cause me such discomfort that I interpreted it as gastric ulcer for sure and was forced to frantically call up my school-friend, Sharmistha, now in Flanders, ,and ask her advice. Medicines with the composition Ranitidine or Famotidine were what she suggested, besides the compulsory biscuits every hour. I was utterly perplexed (and highly annoyed by my lack of foresight) to find that we had no Omeprazole or Zinetac among the huge heap of medicines we had carried over from India. K was taken aback by a very evidently-scared-out-of-my-wits me bursting into tears over the phone and asking him to come home as soon as possible. Despite a steady shower, we left for the closest pharmacy (RiteAid, of course) immediately after he had had tea and an evening snack and hunted down the aforementioned medicine. Luckily it's an over-the-counter drug, so all we had for concern was the price tag. We chose the in-house RiteAid product with the exactly similar composition but a lower price tag. All the same, it came to about $6...if you convert that to rupees, you'll probably empathise with my mental state after that. The more I try to save money, the more I somehow end up wasting it in some way or the other.

We had a hard time parking the car. It was raining non-stop and there seemed to be more cars than usual along the kerb, so that there was hardly any space big enough for a newly trained driver to easily manoeuvre the car into a straight (and legal) position. We wasted a lot of time in one smaller spot before K had the good sense to surrender and move on to a much more larger slot. I had volunteered to get out and give directions to help park but I don't think I proved to be of much help after all. I made a sorry sight in a white hooded jacket, clutching two umbrellas (both open, for some strange reason), a crumpled white polythene carry-bag (in which to deposit the wet umbrellas and thereby protect the car) and a white paper packet containing the treasure of the moment (my medicines, silly). But it felt good to feel that I had a loving husband, who, even after a hard day's work, gave precedence to my miseries over his own. It is something most women dream of but few realise. I'm glad to be one of the blessed ones.

K was decent enough to cook dinner yesterday, one of his specials, the chilli mushroom-and-vegetables that he does occasionally. For the first time in my life, I made narkel laddoos and they turned out quite well. So good, in fact, that after a trial in the evening, K looked crestfallen at the sight of just one as dessert for dinner and demanded another. I can't describe the sense of achievement that I woke up to after that. It was a great feeling.

That reminds me, we noticed something strange at RiteAid. They've happily put Halloween miles behind them and have promptly and unceremoniously replaced all Halloween decorations and puppets with the same having Christmas as the new theme. People here must really be short of enough festivals to go around.

Mitu (my sibling) has a fashion show around the corner and has, as usual, assumed with impenetrable (outrageous) composure, that I am naturally going to edit her accompanying write-up for her. She called me up on GTalk to brief me on the theme and what she wants from me. Sigh, younger sisters !

P.S. I just discovered that the writing behind the Ranitidine tablet runs thus, "Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, Bachepalli -502 325 INDIA".

Of all the */#%@* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cosmetics confusion !

I thought I'd go for a walk about noon today, since sitting in a warm and cosy room, however comfortable it is in terms of sensation, also breeds discontent and monotony. Well, honestly speaking, I also had a specific goal in mind. They've been planting slim red-leaved plants along the kerb. (Trying to make it look picturesque I suppose, at a time when halloween might mean festivity to people here but bodes ill to most of us, as the spectre of a long and dreary winter looms large on the mental horizons of us aliens here, born to appreciate lush evergreen tropical foliage.) And naturally, they immediately came up with a makeshift 'No Parking: Somerville Police' signs here and there along the entire stretch of the East Cliff Street Brookside Gardens complex. Poor K had a tough time this morning, having overlooked those signs and therefore, startled and perplexed to see a mini-crane in gardening mode bang in front of our car just as he was about to get into Ajay's car (Ajay, FYI, is a generous colleague who patiently awaits his gobbling-breakfast-and-grabbing-bag routine every morning en route office). He immediately deposited his bags and rushed back home, where I was already at the windows, armed with the necessary weapon...er, I mean the car keys. The dearth of parking slots nearby caused him to park our new car a long way off, near Gaston Bakery.

Naturally, he called me up later in the morning and wanted me to 'go have a look' to check whether it was still there or not. I forgot to ask him the natural question. What on earth did he suppose might occur to it within such a short interval? I don't suppose a car can be abducted or robbed in stark daylight, could it? Anyway, one can't expect the possessor-of-a-new-car to patiently provide rational responses to all these highly impertinent enquiries. One just accepts them and moves on. To humor his nightmares and reassure him that they are unwarranted. In any case, I needed some sunlight to resolve my dandruff problems and this was a highly agreeable opportunity for me to go air myself (and my hair).

I set off after a shampoo, appropriately attired in turtleneck top, jeans, sneakers and of course, a woollen jacket with a hood that comes in extremely handy on such days like today, when the wind can wreak havoc on your hair and treat it as rudely and roughly as if it were hay.

Well, the car was fine, though a trifle dusty, it occurred to me, from some distance. I was actually more interested in my environs where various fall colours jostled for attention and impressed me with a favourable view of my impromptu outing on the whole. I considered walking on a little bit further to RiteAid Pharmacy to check out the latest seasonal discounts. No sooner thought than done.

K is always it seems, in a hurry, whenever we have to buy a few things at any store. There is so much in these American stores that is new and enchanting to me, but I hardly ever have the luxury of indulging my interest in the same. Today, I was a happy person as I walked the length and breadth of the store, strolling in a leisurely fashion through the aisles and pausing, whenever something caught my fancy, to examine it more closely.

There was enough to keep me engaged and engrossed for the better part of an hour. There seem to be numerous cosmetics products here, ready to make you gasp with wonder if you are a perceptive writer and groan with exasperation if you actually intend to buy something as simple as a lip balm or a face cream. For the variety and range and categories are, to put it bluntly yet politely, chaotic. Quite literally.

For starters, I spotted a huge aisle that provided only hair products. Well, I suppose most of us would comprehend hair oil, shampoo, conditioner and the daring amongst us would perhaps be familiar with terminology like hair gel and hair serum. I was born under a lucky star, I guess. I have seen hair salads, hair creams, hair root tonics, curl holding fluids, straightening washes, mousse, volumisers, solutions for damaged hair, hydrating lotions for dry hair, countless varieties of hair machinery (sorry, couldn't resist using the term) ranging from hair brushes of a plethora of shapes and sizes, straighteners, curlers, tongs etc etc. Pheeeeeeeeew.

Let's move on to lip care products. There is the quintessential vaseline lip guard, neighboured by lip balms (cherry tinted, extra-moisturising, rejuvenating), chapsticks, moisturising lipsticks, medicated lip creams, lip balms with sunscreen, lip gliders etc etc. Wow, I actually remember all those names. Now that's an accomplishment for sure.

And don't even mention creams, bodywashes, deodorants, moisturisers and sunscreens. I've had quite a lot of them for a month or so, thank you. And to think that I've just explored the cosmetics section today. That too, in one of the smaller ones among the entire RiteAid chain of stores !

I have a gut feeling that K knew the feelings of revolt that such miscellaneous and myriad products might engender within me. No wonder he's always in a hurry to head home.

Social Sunday...

Hi, everyone. Yesterday, Sunday 7th July, was a day of socializing. Just before lunch yesterday,one of K’s colleagues (in the same account, but not part of the same project), Sabyasachi, came over. He is the same person who booked us into this hotel and also arranged for the cab that brought us here from the airport. As I said, we were not being able to do anything here until we had a car, since everything is so scattered around the place. Sabya took us in his car to a shopping mall called Bridgewater Commons, about 7 mins by car from our hotel.Okhane we found a small open-air booth of T-mobile and got ourselves a cell connection.

[Ekhane the strange thing is that you have only CDMA connections, which means that you cannot choose to buy your cellphn model and take a network separately.Phones are available only when you take a connection, but you can opt for a free phn (which means a very simple and basic model) or pay extra for a good phn (although the good phns all seem quite expensive, i.e. greater than 160 dollars). K had very good Nokia cell phn ,which he had bought in USA when he was here previously,but he has misplaced the charger, so we cannot use it. The charger of my Indian cell does fit well into it, but that doesn’t help in USA, as the plug sockets there need very fine-pointed pins, which my charger doesn’t have. So, we get two free phns with our T-mobile connection, of which we already received one yesterday,and shall get the other on the 18th. There was a choice between a Samsung and a Nokia phn, I opted for the Nokia since we’ve got used to handling Nokia sets and their batteries are also reputed to be better.]

Back to non-technical stuff. I really liked the layout of the mall, where there were both big and branded shops as well as open-air hawkers and open-air eateries.People here all seem very casually dressed most of the time and no one really cares whether you are wearing too many or too little clothes, except of course, if you are exceptionally shabby or gaudy.By the way, most of the brands are all available in India, and here too, Sabya Da says, their sales aren’t really sales most of the time, mane they offer you discounts on increased prices. Human nature remains the same everywhere, I suppose !!!

After this, Sabya took us to Desi Bazaar, a shop on N Gaston Avenue, Somerville. It is run by a Gujarati lady and seems to contain almost everything we Indians might need, under one roof – be it breads and cereals, ready to eat foods, biscuits, juices, soups, fruits and vegetables, packed laddoos/mithais, ready to eat rotis/naans/kulchas, non-veg preparations like tea, spices, picles, dettol, cosmetics, bread etc.We bought toasted biscuits (of Britannia), bread (26 slices in a packet), mixed bhel (muri mixed with other condiments),r eady-to-eat rajma-chawal,mutter paneer, pindi chana, dal makhani, palak paneer, sarson ka saag, jeera rice, ready-to-eat chicken tandoori in spinach sauce and kebab rolls, etc. All this was for or next week’s dinner and my lunch also, since K is to lunch in his office canteen. Nowadays our policy is usually to partake of a heavy breakfast (complimentary from the hotel) and a light lunch. Today, for example, I lunched on Maggi soup and bread followed by yogurt (2 packs of which we carry to our rooms after breakfast, as our breakfast is heavy enough without them! ). K had a fish sandwich and an apple juice for lunch at the canteen today, he says.

Anyway, we had a very late lunch at the hotel after Sabya Da dropped us. We were just preparing for a nap when my school friend Sharmistha and her husband, Sourav, dropped in. They live in Flanders, abt 40 miles away from Raritan ( and a 40 mins’ drive). Sharmistha has gained quite a lot of weight, considering she was always reed-thin. She was extremely perplexed as to why it had suddenly occurred to Shobhana to send her a gift via me, that too without any specific occasion in mind. They stayed here for quite a while, we had a great time. Her hubby is a very quiet, solemn and intelligent looking chap. Needless to say, Sharmistha does enough talking on behalf of both of them!!! She is a darling. She is absolutely ecstatic to see me at last and gave us a lot of valuable advice on various aspects of life and living in USA. Honestly, everyone is helping us so much, I don’t know how we would ever manage without them.
Biyer por theke USA eshe neejer guchher sari phele rekhechhe, aktao occasion paini kothao porar but amar saris dekhe akhono extremely thrilled aar bokaboki korlo registry marriage er deen akta simple sari porechhilam. Aar kobe je amai oi uncultured lokjon er moto silk er sari r shathe rubiar blouse pora bondho hobe, shei niye prochur jhad dilo.They departed after coffee/tea etc (provided 24 hrs, free, by our hotel).

By that time, it was already 7.30 pm. We changed hurriedly, since Sabya was supposed to pick us up for dinner at their place around 8pm.I wore the new salwar suit that Mamoni-Bapi had gifted me on the occasion of Poila Boishakh, realising that this was one of the few rare instances when I would have an opportunity to wear ethnic attire at all. ( K says I look like a lady, but I personally think that was because he had got tired of seeing me in jeans for the past one week or so !). Sabya was punctual enough.It was hardly a 10 mins’ drive to their place.His wife Moumita was elated to see us.She is very slim, slightly dark-complexioned,very eloquent, very pretty.Prothome she served us cold drinks and chips.I had pineapple juice, since I’m on a weight loss mission.Prochur adda holo.Sabyasachi ke prothome khub chupchaap aar serious mone hoechhilo, but badite he really opened up and oder byaranor mojaar shob goppo bollo.He lives in BJ block in Salt Lake while Moumita r baaper badi is in Kasba Bakultala.Ora Independence day weekend e Niagara byadate gechhilo by bus and since K had been there before, they had a great time comparing their respective experiences.Ektu pore Ratul bole oder office er akata chhokra dropped in ( he had also been invited), K ero chena.Ratul told us of his harrowing experiences with dentists’ bills in the US. Moumita bollo or ak relative ache in the USA, she naaki bolechhe taar dui chhelemeye ke plumber aar dentist banaabe (considering they earn much more than our husbans are or will ever earn!!!) We had bhaat, motorshnuti diye moog er daal, chicken curry,bnadhakopir torkaari,bagda chingrir jhol and aam er chutney for dinner. Sabyasachir paala chhilo oi din rate thaala dhowar, jodio amra shobai volunteer korlam to help out. Their home is very plainly but prettily furnished aar bheeshon comfortable.One –bedroom apartment, but living space ta besh bodo. Bishal black rexine sofas, akta chhotto TV-DVD unit, akta dark wood er centre table, akta chhotto 4-seater dining table, microwave, fridge. Ora bolchhilo fittings gulo besh lojjhode tobe shotyi kotha bolte dekhe bojha jai na. Amra kothai accommodation nebo, sheta niye besh chhap e achhi. Ora ei mash er sheshe Somerset e Somerset Mews bole akta apartment complex e shift kore jachhe, shekhane laundry ache,fitness centre ache akta, prochur Bengali families aar akdom raasta cross korei Patel Bazaar, jekkhane shomosto Indian necessities are easily available.Amrao okhane jete parle khushi hotam, kintu amader problem ta hochhe je unlike them, we don’t have a car, so Somerset would be too far for K to commute unless he can become part of a car pool with ppl from his office,who also share the same timings. Somerville area ta K er office er kaachhe,okhane prochur lokjon o ache K er office er, but okhane dokkan paat ektu kom aar Bengali families thakleo besh scattered bhabe ache. Moumita to ato frustrated chhilo kotha bolar lokjon na peye je amader peye hathe shorgo peyechhe mone hochhilo. Ora Somerville ei thaake, kintu laundry ta oder badi theke beriye besh khaanikta. Winter er kotha bhebei lokjon ekhane laundry r byapare ato concerned, karon it is supposed to be unbelievably cold during the winter months and therefore, venturing outside is a terror.
Kaal rate amader phirte 10.45 pm hoye gechhilo.K er friend, Sushmit had called thrice aar amader nap eye, akta voice message rekhe gechhilo je amar ato raateo room e nei dekhe or ektu chinta hochhe.Amra immediately call up kore oke reassure korlam je we are perfectly ok!!!

More details coming up soon. Here it’s 10 pm, Mon July 8th and my poor K is waiting for me to serve dinner. The menu tonight is rajma chawal and yogurt. Am off to serve dinner !!!

First days...

Ekhane amra Holiday Inn Express e uthechhi,K er client co. Johnson and Johnson er shathe eder akta tie-up achhe, tai they are offering a concession on the daily tariff. We reached Frankfurt early, i.e half an hr before the scheduled time of arrival. But our flight to Newark,NJ,was delayed due to technical glitches in the aeroplane that we were supposed to board...so we arrived a good 3 hours late in USA...immigration check,baggage claim and customs clearance didn't take up much time...luggage is intact...the limo-driver who was supposed to come and receive us at the airport was good enough to wait for the entire period of time.We reached the hotel around 9 pm.There's a MacDonalds just across the road...K bought burgers and french fries for dinner...we went to sleep almost immediately and woke up around 9.15 am here.Went down immediately without even brushing as the breakfast is 1) complimentary 2) over by 10 am.There were plenty of options...cereals of 4 types,brown and white bread, cinnamon rolls, cakes of several types, fruits of 5 varieties (melons,grapes,papaya,banana),baked egg cakes, fried bacon, 3 types of juices (cranberry,orange,apple), mashed sausage,t oast with a choice of grape jam/strawberry jam/peanut butter and yogurt, available in a variety of flavours like cherry,banana and strawberry, peach, blueberry etc. It seems easy to lose weight here as the dietary value of each food is mentioned on the container. After breakfast, we retired to our room,where the housekeeping staff, we found, had already finished the cleaning and supplied us with fresh bed linen and towels.We then each took a bath successively and watched TV.There were some weird reality shows being aired.We lunched on maggi soup,toast biscuits and yogurt, while watching Andaz Apna Apna, the CD of which we had brought along with us. We had a long nap and woke up around 6.30 pm.It was drizzling.We took our umbrellas and went out for evening snacks and to buy phone cards. Bad luck. After chicken sandwiches at MacD, we located the Towne Plaza, where the phn cards were sold...but due to its being 4th July, the shop had closed early.we bought some Chinese style chicken chowmin for dinner and returned to the hotel. There were some magnificient fireworks visible from both opposite the Towne Plaza and also from the Hotel driveway, the latter being just opposite the Branchburg park, where it's hard to get parking space ,the place is so crowded with spectators on that particular evening. After sitting on benches in front of the hotel for some time, we returned to our rooms, had dinner (though I must say, I didn't think much of the chowmin and prefer Indian-style Chinese which looks and tastes much more appetising) with the regulation fortune cookies and went to sleep about midnight.

This morning, we woke up quite early, finished brushing etc and went for breakfast. Today,there were variations in the breakfast menu. There were scrambled eggs, pancakes with syrup, potato pies etc. Now I'm at the laptop, while K had gone to buy calling cards. He's just returned and is trying to call home. Shall get back later with more details.