On the menu:
Naan, samosas, tofu and paneer with chutney, salad, gulab jamun and our juice of choice, mixed with sprite.
Indian food is no easy task.
Seriously, we spent the entire day there. We almost missed dinner at the house because we were still at Sumana's.
We got there at 11. We cooked cooked cooked until 1:30 and the first child came home. We ate lunch and drank tea until the 2nd child home at 4 and then when it was time to take them swimming at 5. We were there when dance practice began and we were there when the hubby came home at 6.
Being in the kitchen, listening to Sumana and her mother communicate in mother-daughter language and then seeing Sumana deal with her kids and then with other moms at the pool and then her husband... it gave me a glimpse of what daily life is like in India. Granted, this is a pretty privileged family but it was still daily life.
I forgot what it was like to have a daily life like that.
My days are so strange compared to what they used to be.
I forgot what it was like to be a child and to have a billion afternoon activities and mothers and fathers that bring you clean clothes from the line, or fix you an afternoon glass of apple juice and provide you with an afternoon snack, or pinch your thigh for not saying please and thank you. I forgot what it was like to splash around in a pool and beg for ice cream after, despite the shivers. I forgot what it was like for my mom to remind me to wear shoes, and to stop throwing things around the house.
But then again, I wasn't really that child and I never had that life so I guess I didn't forget too much, it just seemed strange to me to be around children again, and see parent-small child interaction.
That sounds bad - I had a great childhood. But I did not spend my afternoons in the pool or eating samosas or talking with mom's study abroad kids from the US.
From the time I can really remember, I was always on such a move, moving from so many activities, eventually settling on gymnastics, that my parents couldn't keep up. I had their complete support, but we didn't have all of the time in the world, and they couldn't be everywhere they wanted to be at all times. So technically, being in India should not make me feel sad for missing out of family time because I can't say I gave myself too much time for that.
The hardest part was being in the kitchen, listening to Sumana and her mom chatting, bossing each other around, asking questions, warning us, laughing with us, sharing with us.
Mother-daughter chatter is something I have grown up with, with Momma's fam - there is a bunch of cooking and bossing and questions and warnings and laughter. There is a lot of laughter. And sharing. There is never a dull moment, but everyone talking at once and trying to do everything and just be... a big happy family that knows just about everything about everyone else and find joy in moments like cooking time.
But especially mother-daughter time... when you realize that you do wear the same things and laugh the same way and make the same faces and cleaning the new apartment and drinking coffee in bed, and how you know what the other is thinking and talking in the same voice to animals, and how you know what the other wants to drink and how yes, sharing the cookie is a good idea... but it is a better idea to get two, just in case.
And yea... mother daughter things.
Sumana told us about her own mother-daughter times... after her second child, Anee, was born, Kavaliya her daughter was feeling neglected and so Sumana said, let's go out, just the two of us.
And apparently they were wearing matching clothes that day, jeans or something, and they were just doing basic errands... but they stopped at a book store and for hours, perused the book store, just the two of them.
Now Kavaliya asks when they are going to have Girls day out again, and of course, what they are going to wear.
Today was kind of like being with family just chatting and cooking and eating and helping... all the things you do with your family, because they are our family here, the closest thing we have to a family here.
And I loved that.
I loved today.
It made me very happy and sad, in such a wonderful way.
I'm very, very, very glad that I can relate.
lovelove.
(p.s. the family loved our cooking!)
