Musings of a Global Nomad

It’s that time of year again! Twinkling lights, Christmas cheer, Gratitude, Prayer, and Giving. It’s also that time of year I sit down to write our annual family update and I must be honest here; this year I dragged my feet, almost didn’t write it, but then realized (and was reminded J )that this is one Christmas tradition I absolutely cannot give up on and so… here it goes.  (Warning: it’s long so go get yourself that cup of coffee and put your feet up.) It’s been a whirlwind of a year! Lots of ups, lots of downs and quite some drama. Not surprising I guess, considering our track record, but nevertheless it has been an exhausting year. The ups-some great holidays, catch ups with friends and family, a long amazing summer in India where we enjoyed setting up our new home, lots of little moments with the kids, where something they said or did made us laugh, made us smile, made us proud; made us hold them just a little bit tighter, our hearts exploding with happiness and lov...

Yesterday I stood in St Peters Square surrounded by one hundred thousand people to witness the canonization of the Saint of the Gutters.  The atmosphere was electric, palpable, and as Pope Francis pronounced her a Saint, I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes. It was a very special moment, not just because here we were witnessing something momentous, but because, Mother Teresa has personally touched me and my family. Those ripples she talks about in the quote above, well one  of them was me. Let me tell you my story. I must been about six years old when I first met Mother Teresa and visited Sishu Bhavan in Calcutta. Though the memory is now clouded, the visit left a big imprint, so much so that I was drawn back frequently. Initially I would beg my parents to take me back there whenever we transited through Calcutta. As I grew older and we moved around, we always found a Mother Teresa home close by to visit. The habit continued even when I left home to join university. ...

Dearest ones Sending you our warmest wishes for the season. As we usher in another Christmas, we are thankful as always for your love, the warmth of your friendship and the memories we share. Life is rushing by, children growing up faster than we want and we find that we continuously get lost in the mayhem of routine. Life seems to take on a faded hue and the world around seems harsh and absurd. What with all the terrorists, idiots, misogynists, ignoranants, discriminators and misplaced ideals, we wonder if there is any place for idealists like us. As we wonder at the futility of it all, we also feel guilty; for having everything and yet feeling disconnected.  But then we meet someone, so ordinary but so inspirational, we experience something that touches our soul deeply, we see our teenager passionate about a cause, quietly trying to make a difference and we feel renewed again. And we convince ourselves that being completely human and fully alive is just this; ...

When my parents last visited us, they were awed when my preschooler excitedly showed them the power point presentations she loves working on. She does this for fun. She chooses a topic, sometimes it’s her favorite band, sometime it’s something as mundane as shoes or there was even one titled ‘things’. She googles relevant images, copies and pastes them on to the slide, does word art, graphics, the works. She may not be able to spell many words yet, but she is a power point expert. She, like all my other kids are Digital Natives, the generation of people born during or after the rise of digital technologies. (And we all, born before 1980 are called Digital immigrants by the way.) There are kids like her everywhere. You see them on the bus, the teenager with the ear plugs, listening to her iPod and texting at record breaking speed from her phone, your 7 year old niece whom you go to when you have trouble figuring out your smart phone, the intern at office who knows what to do when ...

We first met one hot day in Madras (I really can't get myself to say Chennai). I must have been  about eight years old and we had just moved into our new home in Annanagar West extension. My older brother and I were bored that afternoon and deciding to be a little adventurous, we climbed up onto the parapet of our roof. It was exciting; we could see far and wide, a whole new view of our new neighborhood.  Suddenly we heard an unfamiliar but pleasant voice call out to us asking us to come down immediately. We peered down and were startled to see a lady we had never seen before looking up at us with amusement and fear. She asked us our names but before we could answer, she once again asked us to please come down before we fell and broke our heads, and laughing, we reluctantly climbed down and went to introduce ourselves. And thus our relationship began with the lady from the house across the street. She had silver hair tied up in a bun and eyes that twinkle...

Having been in a bad mood all week, I have perhaps been more attuned to all the people around me who are also in a bad mood and this made me realize that indeed we are a grumbling society. This is nothing new and I am sure we all realize it at some point. And... in all fairness I am sure we all do our best to keep sight of the things to be thankful for, but nevertheless we grumble. We grumble if its too hot, then we grumble if the air con is on too high; we grumble if we have a busy week and then we grumble when its too quiet; we grumble when we have one too many engagements on a weekend and then we grumble when we have to stay home all weekend too. We are grumblers. So for all of you having a bad week, this ones for you. It's the weekend and hopefully it will be fun and relaxed and you can find a reason to smile and let the sun into your soul. I for one, am sure gonna try... Life Life is strange Beautiful Hard And fun Some love. Some laugh Some strugg...

Turning 40! Well let me tell you, it is a big deal. You think you are ready, but you aren't. You know it's just a number but yet, it weighs you down. You have been expecting it, planning for it even, but when it happens, you have to take a deep breath and fight hard to silence the one hundred thousand impulses that surge through you, drumming one hell of a scary beat.     It helped that I turned 40 under a beautiful Parisian sky. I wanted to mark this day in a special way and had planned this trip even though it  wasn't  really the best time (midweek, winter and a sick child). But the rest of my gang hardly needed any convincing. And since it involved missing a few days of school, it was, as you can imagine, met with even more excitement).  So yes we celebrated my birthday walking the streets of Paris, eating fantastic but much too expensive French cuisine, taking endless photographs, throwing a key into the river Seine, climbing the Eiffel tower...