New York calling !

It had been a while that I had spent time with the children (daughter and son,who are in the US )and there had been plans of visiting them but nothing concrete.

Till one fine day the younger one rang up with the fabulous news that she would soon be a working girl. I was very overwhelmed by this exciting piece of news and just wanted to enjoy and celebrate with the kids. Immediately plans were made and mercifully the husband managed to get leave and we could jet off.

The travel time to the US had been something that has  always left one quite unenthused but with time the feeling of malaise has worn off or maybe one has become more habituated,whatever may the reason be, the journey no longer seems that tiresome.

Suitcases were out and list was drawn up of things that one needed to take ... which basically was food and yes, more food. Top of the list, their favorite 'boondi laddos' and 'moong dal halwa' ! Loads of mathri's were made, to which my daughter joked that with all that eating she would sure be putting on kilos. Inspite of stressing over travelling light, we still managed four pieces of choc a bloc baggage. Of course, the spices occupied pride of place and I was feverishly looking up English names of  herbs like' mulethi'  just in case  I was  to explain that to the US customs guys ( which by the way is Licorice in English). The daughter simply loves my homemade chaat masala so carted tons of that too.

Since I am a lot into self healing and avoid medication myself (and try and insist the same with the kids) so carried several pouches of what could arguably be called home remedies. My  nani's  home remedy for stomach ache would be putting a few drops of  lukewarm hing liquid (asafoetida for the uninitiated) on the belly button and magically the ache would subside. Seriously it still works, do try it sometime, at my peril if you like! So yeah, it's all coming back ...  my nani's (maternal grandmother) and mother's influences have rubbed onto me and I am this typical mommy who tries to  anticipate what all possible things on earth the kids might need.

The Delta flight was smooth, with a change over... got to see Paris (no we guys have yet not been to this romantic city), albeit from the confines of Charles De Gaulle Airport, with its unusual but   interestingly done interiors. For inflight entertainment, for lack of  a better choice watched 'Khoobsurat' and surprisingly quite enjoyed it, Fawad, the hero,was charming; and Sonam, though not my fav, too was  cutesy in this movie

Charles De Gaulle Airport

Finally JFK and then a short ride to White Plains (where the son lives) with this super cab service called 'Shuttle Me'. For those who maybe interested, 'Shuttle Me' is an airport to home cab service...its comfortable, punctual and what's more quite economical.  We have patronised  them often to vouch for all the above. Undeniably, the Yellow cabs for this distance are a total rip-off.

How things change when the children are all grown up - right from the time we landed the daughter was constantly calling and monitoring to make sure that there were no hiccups. There was traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway and it took us some time and by the end of our journey even the fella driving us knew that we had one dotey kid.

Yummy sandwiches and coffee awaited us, as soon as we landed home. Also, they had gone shopping a day earlier for groceries and cooked this lovely meal so that I wouldn't have to bother for the rest of the day with cooking!  The house too had been spruced up ( in deference to my penchant for cleanliness). Like I have always maintained kids are life's biggest blessing. We were back in the warm and familiar environs of my son's apartment. It felt so nice to be back, soaking in the view from his bedroom window. It looked as charming as ever and India for now was a distant memory. I was overjoyed at being with my kiddos to miss anything back home. The family was together and there was lots of catching up later in the evening, when the son got back from work. Ah! those late hour working, the bane of modern life. Thus ended the first day, laughing with and  listening to the children's light hearted banter, till finally jet lag got the better of me.