The colors Red, White and Blue

This week started off with a holiday for America’s Independence Day. My husband and I took the kids to see an amazing display of fireworks which were part of the Independence Day celebrations here ….it was my first time viewing these fireworks in my 13 years here in the US. There is a Hindi saying which goes….Jab jab jo jo hona hai…tab tab woh woh hota hai …translated…..When it is meant to happen, it will happen. I find this to be increasingly more and more true in my case. As we drove down to the place, where we could observe the fireworks, the American flag with its colors Red, White and Blue could be seen on display at many places and I took a trip down memory lane to the day when 13 years ago, one end of June, I had first arrived to the US. My husband’s friends had come to pick us up at the airport and as we drove towards home, I was surprised that I could not see a single person walking on the road….I could only see cars. I mentioned this to my husband who explained the concept of a ‘freeway’ to me and told me to get used to the fact that unlike India I won’t be seeing too many people on the roads. It was the first indication that I had come into a world quite different from the one I knew….and thus began a process of discovery and learning.

Life had changed…to a new bride still getting accustomed to her new home….it was a big change….as I had left behind every ‘known’ factor in my life….my home, my family, my friends, my job as I walked along with my husband and stepped into ‘his’ world. So many things were different here….I was amazed at the size of the vegetables and fruits here…much bigger than what I had seen in India. The names were also different for some of them ….lady’s finger was okra, capsicum was bell pepper, brinjal was eggplant and coriander leaves were cilantro.

I was on a dependent visa and it would be over a year before I could start working, So, I spent that time doing something I had always wanted to do…volunteering. I signed up as a volunteer for the American Red Cross and spent my afternoons at its office which was close to my home. And there I met some wonderful women who either worked or volunteered there….and that was my first experience working with people who were not from India and I realized….it did not matter which country we came from….women were the same everywhere…we were wives, mothers, daughters, sisters and grandmothers who loved, cared, worried and were attached to our families.

Some school children used to come to volunteer at the Red Cross and among them were some teenage girls of Afghani origin…they were born and raised in the US but their parents were from Afghanistan. When they learnt that I was from Mumbai, they excitedly came up to me and asked me if I had met Shahrukh Khan! And were quite disappointed when I said….No. As they kept talking animatedly to me about Shahrukh Khan, I (an Amitabh Bachchan fan myself) was quite amused as I asked them…Shahrukh Khan??? Really???... Years later, I would get the chance to see Amitabh Bachchan at the local parade of the Indian independence day here in the US. The crowd (including me) went quite crazy seeing him (while their kids…born and raised here….just couldn’t understand what was happening to their usually ‘normal’ parents who were suddenly acting like a bunch of star struck teenagers). The next day I excitedly shared my experience with my non-Indian colleague who said….Oh yeah! Read about it and saw his pictures in the paper…..And she was quite amused as she asked me…..Geeta, that old guy??? Really??? ……What can I say….sometimes, life brings you a full circle.

Today, I can say I am a good blend of India and America. I love pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast just as much as I love dosas and chutneys. I am still a big fan of Amitabh Bachchan but somewhere along the line Richard Gere has joined him too. I sing along with Shreya Ghoshal and Shania Twain. I love the smiles of Madhuri Dixit and Julia Roberts. I greet Americans with a ‘hello’ and many times they have greeted me back with folded hands and a ‘Namaste’. And while the feeling of having reached ‘home’ is still there when the plane lands at the airport in India (the place where I was born, raised and where my parents still live)…the very same feeling of having reached ‘home’ is present when the plane lands at the airport in US (where I live and where my children were born and are being raised).

Signing off knowing that being here in the US has given me an insight into the culture, people and cuisines of not just the US but of different parts of the world and this quote by President Barack Obama

‘There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America - there's the United States of America.’