Family blog: Nandan's first here

After very long time (almost 2 years) I felt like blogging again. Taniya has been blogging frequently but some how I lost interest. I used to be active in www.r2iclubforums.com but after our turbulent return to India followed by return to America, I am disillusioned and never had the enthu to blog. I keep reading Taniya’s blog; came close to writing couple of times and finally liked her idea of family blog; yeah why not we blog together? So here it goes….

Having moved from one country to other back and forth last few years in search of satisfying life, I have started to notice things from a different perspective. I used to have this attitude “deal with life as it comes” i.e. never made strong choices; pick any job, own any place, eat anything, visit any popular place and on and on. A life where you do not have to make choices or being in a situation where you can’t make choices is better may be? I never realized until I met Taniya that I never made choices; see the list below:

1. All my friends did engineering, so did I.

2. All my classmates moved to US, so did I

3. All my friends switched to IT, so did I

4. Most of my friends\relatives got married through arranged marriage, and………this is where my life changed!!!!

And then came the period of choices, no more were the decisions easy:

1. Should I move to India

2. Should I live in Kolkata or Bangalore or Hyderabad

3. Should I return to US

4. Should we live in Chicago or Philadelphia

This decision-making points are becoming more and more complicated.

In midst of all this confusion something pleasant happened without me realizing – “Our home in Bucks county”. It has been less than a year since we moved in and the experience has been very good. It is growing on us. We have a cozy back yard, the right size of living space for us, lot of greenery around, a little creek nearby to Kayak now and then, good coffee places and shops where can walk to and decent enough commute time to work if not ideal one. We like it here so far. There is uncertainty in our life but the experience living here in Bucks County has been good. We considered living in Philadelphia, Chestnut hill and other places but finally this place worked out for us. After visiting southern California (which I previously thought was better than east coast before seeing it in person) during vacation I seem to like this place even more.

Everyone has his or her own preferences as far as place to live is concerned; we are happy that we found ours good enough to be called “Our Home”.

I miss writing Letters

I miss writing Letters

Today morning I opened a facebook message from a super old friend of mine, and to my surprise it was more than a sentence, it was a paragraph. She bought the topic of those golden days when you would write a letter and actually post it.

Reels rewind, 1995, not too long back. Just a mere 15 years and the art of communication have changed in light years. I would save up my pocket money, go to Archies and buy the thinnest most beautiful rice paper letter pads. Wait for the perfect moment of solitude, where the gears click, and my pen would start pouring my feelings, my thoughts, my ideas and write out my life on pages after pages. Than carefully you would fold it 2 times, and go to the nearest post office buy stamps and post it in the Red Indian Government post box. The above process would have taken atleast 2 weeks in total. Feelings are the essence of this form of communication.

Now starts the waiting, hopefully you will receive my letter in a week of two, than you will go through the above steps in a 2 week time frame. At my end, I would receive a reply in a few weeks and the process continues. This is how much time and effort was put into relationships and friendships.

Lets fast forward 15 year, 2010, today… I was elated reading her facebook message of more than a sentence. We have shifted from pages to sentences and even words to acronyms; we have moved from post box to mailbox, and than came the social networking sites. You know where all your classmates are, you know what their husbands and wives do, where did anybody go to spend their weekends, you know your colleagues and their family….You know all of this information. But, where is the care and connection.

You know more than you want to know but in the whole big process, soon friend list is all I have for friends, but do they care to actually know how I feel.  If you are really sad, in need of a friends advice, would you post it on facebook or twitter or orkut….I know the answer for me … NEVER.  In today’s fast paced technology savvy age, email is old too, it’s the one liners which you would have responded on your way to the bathroom or in the elevator. The art of communication has time warped. Time is of essence in today’s communication; if you do not respond within eight hours, forget it.

I miss those days spent on selecting the right greeting cards for different occasions. I miss holding a letter in my hand, rereading it, enjoying each word, looking at your handwriting thinking what would you be thinking when you wrote it. I miss the time that I dedicated to these friendships. I miss writing letters and greater than that I miss receiving letters in my postbox.

This post is to all my friends and family, who spent time on me.