A shore never reached

Uma grew up in a small village. Her father was a carpenter who would often sit around the house half the year. Uma was more close to her mother, Laxmi. Laxmi died when Uma was twelve years old. She used to work as a maidservant in seven households and could earn barely enough to feed the family. Laxmi died in 1982. It was a terrible summer in 1982 when temperature rose so high that the village river became dry and she had to walk barefoot to the neighbouring village to fetch water in a small bucket. They would recycle the water as much as they could. Life was tough.

As a kid Uma never understood the societal hierarchy until one day she asked her mother for a new pair of school shoes. Laxmi gave a blank stare but never uttered a single word. That night, like every other night little Uma cuddled up in her mother's arms. With a whispering voice Uma complained that her friends get new shiny shoes every year and she never got a new one in the last two years. With shiny little jubilant eyes, she looked at Laxmi's face only to realize that her mother had already fallen asleep. She hid her face in her mother's chest and tried to get some sleep. So far she got everything that she asked for - pencils, erasers, a pack of fruit and nut in every three months, a cornetto on every last day of the school year. She couldn't be happier. Her life was perfect! She felt guilty that she asked for the new shoes. She thought: may be it was not right for an eight year old to ask for new shoes. But most of her friends did ask their parents. May be they asked their fathers only. For her that was not possible. But then again most of her friends were one year older to her, so perhaps they were allowed to ask for the new shoes. Did they really ask ? Soon she realized she was thinking too much. With a happy mind Uma tried to get some sleep only to realize that her mother was crying as tears started rolling down her face. Uma cuddled up more tightly and slept with a smile.              

   

Next day in school Uma asked her friend Anamika how did she get a new pair of shoes and what did she tell her parents. With a surprise Anamika looked at her and replied that she never had to ask her parents for anything. She got so many new clothes and shoes that these days every morning she gets confused while choosing one. Uma silently listened to her and laughed with her as Anamika choked a bit with excitement. That day in school Uma noticed every ones' shoes while walking down the corridors during the break. Some students had stylish shoes. Uma craved for those ones. While a few other students had bad ugly torn shoes worse than that of Uma's. Uma hated those shoes and also those girls. She made up her mind never to be friends with them. After school while walking back she asked Anamika why some of these girls had such ugly shoes. With a grim face Anamika replied "those girls are poor and their parents are good for nothing". Uma did not say a single word for the entire day. When she came home she went straight to her mother and asked her "are we poor  ? Are we good for nothing ?" That night Uma cuddled up in her mother's arms and they both cried to sleep.

Twenty year have passed by. Uma is way better off. She works only in three households in the morning and in the evening she works in a dhaba in a town nearby. She has a daughter. She named her Laxmi in memory of her mother. Each month Uma saves 50 rupees and at the end of the year she buys new shoes for Laxmi. With the past twenty years of hard work Uma has made sure that no one can tell them that they are good for nothing. Every night Uma and Laxmi spend hours staring at the stars. People say there are patterns formed by stars and the patterns never change. Uma never found any patterns. Then again who cares ? Sitting under the star-studded sky, Uma tells stories to little Laxmi until she goes to sleep. Life is way bigger. It is as big as the unending sprawling sky which is covered with twinkling stars. Uma feels proud that she worked hard and made a fortune. Life is perfect!

This year, for a school event little Laxmi asked for a new costume. Uma did not have enough money to buy it. She tried to gather as much as she could but it was not enough. The very next day Laxmi came back from school and cried to sleep. The words that Anamika told her twenty year ago started jingling in Uma's ears. For her it was a shore never reached. Did the pattern change ?  

A trip to Seattle (Part 1)

I was eagerly waiting for this trip. During the last six months I went to two Columbus Crew games, went to a show by John Oliver, went to a concert by Bob Dylan (Yes! That's an experience) and went to Chapel Hill twice to be with the gang. Yet, I needed a break from my mundane daily life. I was missing the gang a lot. So, AB and I planned for a trip to Seattle to visit Sada's place during Christmas holidays. 

We started on the 25th evening. I was travelling from Columbus while AB was travelling from Chapel Hill. For me it was a long six hour plane journey from DC to Seattle which as always turned out to be boring except for a unique incident which was indeed one-of-a-kind. Before even we started from DC one of the passengers got deplaned for disobeying the flight attendant. It turned out that he expressed his feelings of anger to the lady with a few specially chosen well structured slang which brought him to that end.  

Once spotted in the Seattle-Tacoma airport the first thing AB told me that he was hungry. With more interrogations AB finally revealed that he did not have a full lunch before he started from Chapel Hill and neither did he buy any food in between. So we both headed for a Starbucks shop to have something. I was extremely delighted to be among the known faces again.

The best way to reach Sada's place from the airport is to take a metro and Sada already gave us enough information on how to reach his place. Sada's apartment is in downtown Seattle near the China town. So, AB and I boarded a metro from the airport and headed towards the China town. I remember, through out the journey I kept on pointing AB to every Chase outlet. Every time AB had a different verbal response which was not only amusing but made me even more interested. I was explaining him how these outlets work and what do they do on a daily basis and how these outlets can run into misery without our indispensable contribution, to be exact my indispensable contribution. It was a deliberate effort on my part to substantiate the fact that how important I am as a resource for the bank. All the while it was a sarcasm that we both enjoyed.       

It was a cold evening. With hands deep inside our pockets we strolled down the streets of Seattle. It was already pretty late in the evening. Streets were mostly empty with a few people loitering around the corners. We soon spotted a tall building on our way. Later we came to know it is the Columbia Center, the tallest building in Seattle. Sada's apartment is in the topmost floor of a 7 storied apartment building. It is in front of the Columbia Center. As soon as we reached Sada's place I felt the same vibe that we used to have back in Chapel Hill with the gang. I met Aindrik, Arjun, Avik, Sankha and Abhik. Aindrik and Arjun reached a couple of days ahead of us. They drove in from Albuquerque. Abhik flew in from Alpharetta and Sankha flew in from California. It was a delight to meet all of them.

Dinner was delicious. We watched the highlights of an ongoing test match between Australia and India and discussed if India could win one game how it would boost the confidence of the entire team ahead of the WC. The discussion reminded me of the days during the soccer WC, when each evening over dinner Subhamay would analyze every game and finally make predictions for the next games. Although his analyses would very often run on a parallel track with that of Roberto Martinez, his predictions more often than not used to be spot on. 

It is amazing that, even though I have spent five years with Sada and AB there will always be new topics which will come up and one can keep on talking about that for hours without running into a single dull moment. The same sense of healthy banter is always there. All the other folks joined in and we ended up spending almost a sleepless night. At 5 in the morning we dispersed and everyone decided to take a nap for a while. For me it was already 8 EST and I was wide awake. 

I thanked myself for rewarding me with this trip. Spending ten years within a known circle and then suddenly leaving that group is not easy. At least for me it was not at all easy. During this trip we traveled a bit around Seattle and I will continue writing on that later.