Posted by RITA MAJUMDAR (Rita Chowdhury)
On 4:28 PM
There are thousands of odd people in America like me who have quit a lucrative career back in their homeland to accompany their beloved...enclosed below is a small piece on the same by me (Rita Chowdhury is my maiden name)...this world is a very beautiful place, every step you take and you find different people who speak differently, have different habits, have different faith but we are one human race! We have to learn to live in harmony together and rise above all challenges and that’s life, that’s Globalization :-)
Beyond the Horizon: My first steps in America
The world is shrinking at an amazing rate as if there is a wacky miniaturization machine working just as in the movie “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”. Experts call it Globalization, Global village and many more terminologies some of which I am yet to discover. Due to this very exact phenomenon, people are now more connected to each other. Being connected is no longer restricted to knowing the whereabouts of near and dear ones but also knowing about the intimate details of each others lives. As creepy as this may sound, we cannot deny the fact that today's world is truly a global village.
Please click on the link below to read the complete article:
Posted by RITA MAJUMDAR (Rita Chowdhury)
On 2:13 AM
Every time I call home, I always seem to be bombarded by the same set of questions - “How am I managing the household chores on my own?” “Did I burn my fingers while cooking?” “Have I made friends?” and so many more questions that do not even register in my brain. Now that I am actually writing these things in words, I wonder - is there some sort of question bank booklets that are available in the market for folks back in India? Am I posed with these questions since I live far away from the dotting eyes of my in-laws and folks? Whatever, the reason may be but I am always put under the testing grill!
It was one of those days, when I called home and my brain was jammed with all the questions that I was asked. However, I thought I must get on with my chores of the day - so I picked my laundry basket, keys to the cleaner room, told my husband that I was locking him in the apartment since he was in the shower and headed straight for the cleaners downstairs. Once in the cleaners, I dumped all the clothes in to the washer and then I realized that I did not have the ‘detergent liquid’ with me. So I ran out and climbed two flights of staircases, then it suddenly struck me I would not be able to enter the apartment without the keys since I had very conveniently forgotten the keys in the cleaner room. Hence, I ran down only to realize that the doors to the cleaners needed the same set of keys to unlock it which I had very smartly left it inside the cleaners!!! YES, you read it right - I had left the key set in the cleaner room and at the same time I had locked my husband (who was in the shower) up in the apartment and to add to the misery - I was not carrying my cellphone either. WOWW....I am genius! I chose to blame the phone-call to India for the mishap. I had taken a mental note that I shall never call home till I was over with my household chores.
Nevertheless, I knocked a number of times on the door of our apartment but it was evident that my husband chose that particular miraculous day for a ‘Royal’ shower! I was clueless, do I wait outside the cleaners room or scream for help? I could not spot even one soul at any of the corridors - why would I? It was minus twenty something degrees Celsius and everyone was inside their respective cosy apartment while I stood at the corridor outside the cleaners alone though not freezing yet not cosy enough :-(. AWESOME!
Without wasting another minute, I knocked at one of the apartment door on the first floor, no one answered. It was getting embarrassing for me by now but I chose to try one last time and this time I knocked at apartment # 2, ground floor bang opposite to the cleaners. It was a strategic decision since there was a possibility that apartments furthest away may not believe my story and instead call 911! The mere thought scared me and I certainly did not want myself to run in to any further adventures. I did a very tiny but an honest prayer that someone should open the door and not shoo me away. There were so many thoughts that ran through my mind. It was more like a jungle with all the restless monkeys, elephants and so many other animals. In short, it was a live discovery channel running inside my little brain.
One minute felt like forever, but when the lady did answer - it was like God had opened the doors to heaven! I am not joking :-) She was indeed my life saviour. However, the best part was when I returned back to my apartment, my beloved husband was still in the bathtub taking a ‘Royal Plunge’ oblivious to the blizzard that ran past me!
