It feels like just yesterday

It feels like just yesterday – my friends and I sipping away some expensive coffee at some coffee shop, digging into a hot chocolate pastry and spoon fighting for the last piece, laughing our guts out at something silly, trying to cut each other’s point and outwitting each other, crashing in on some friend’s door at midnight and giving him/her surprise birthday wishes, giggling over wine and dinner gossiping about hot, new guys on the block, talking about our dating woes and dreading ending up single as all good guys we knew were either married, committed or younger than us.

It feels like just yesterday – dreaming of my Mr. Right and of a blissful, wedded life.

It feels like just yesterday  – living with my parents, that single, carefree, happy, cocooned, protected and dependent life; without a care in the world, without having to worry about duties or responsibilities; without worrying about what groceries to buy and what to cook for dinner every single day; without worrying about paying the bills or making the ends meet.

It feels like just yesterday – rushing through my morning ablutions; taking forever to decide what clothes to put on for office like that was single most important thing to worry about, running around the house looking for my things, my book, my bag to carry to office, sitting at the breakfast table while mom dished out something hot and delicious and steaming while I dried my hair or secured my belt, then hurrying through the breakfast because I was always running late in spite of mom doing everything from making my lunch to packing it; then dashing out of the house and realizing after reaching downstairs that I forgot the bike keys; rushing back up and finding mom at the door holding up the keys for me.

It feels like just yesterday – meeting TCG for the first time and the lightening realization in my heart that this is it; this is the man I want to marry.

It feels like just yesterday – running around like crazy from one designer to another, getting my wedding trousseau in place, running around doing zillion errands, deciding the jewellery, the make-up, the bridal look, shopping for things that I wanted to bring along with me to NZ, doing rounds of the caterers, deciding the menu, adding, subtracting from the list, selecting the wedding card, writing the wedding invitation and in between all this craziness making time to jog and exercise to look my best on the D-day.

It feels like just yesterday – seeing the house cloaked in the wedding frenzy and everyone counting down to the D-day, radiating nervousness and excitement at the same time; those emotional moments, those tears shining through smiles.

It feels like just yesterday; walking down the aisle clenching tightly on Aarti’s fist, seeing my parents looking at me in a different way, having that sinking feeling in the stomach that this is it, and walking the next few steps to the altar knowing that these few steps are going to change my life forever.

It feels like just yesterday – stepping into my new home and realizing everything is different here and yet embracing all the differences and adapting as quickly as possible to them.

It feels like just yesterday – growing crazy with all the packing, deciding on what things to take to along to NZ and what to let go, weighing the baggage so that it remains under the check-in weight limits, realizing its exceeding, opening and re-looking the whole thing to find out what else can go, letting something dear to me go with a heavy heart and a big sigh.

It feels like just yesterday – standing at the airport with tears in my eyes and waving good bye to my family, knowing that I won’t be seeing them for a year at least, still braving a smile.

It feels like just yesterday – stepping on the soil of NZ and being greeted by a welcoming, cool, gentle breeze and knowing in my heart that I will adapt well.

It feels like just yesterday – making this house look like home, cleaning, scrubbing, dusting, arranging and rearranging the furniture till it felt just right, cooking something new and fancy everyday and waiting for TCG to get back home.

It feels like just yesterday – realizing that the honeymoon phase is beyond me now, that real life is right here, going crazy looking and applying for right jobs and finally, finally, finally lending one. Things I am grateful for: Reason # 20

Life’s come a full circle. Come Monday and I will be back in office. After a five month sabbatical. It feels different, and I am excited. Kiwi way of doing things is different. None of my previous experience is going to really count in the beginning. This is hardly my field and I have to start afresh. But I am hopeful that this will lead to something nicer.

So, I am back to the grind. Only this time, there won’t be any mommy packing the lunch or holding up the keys.

It feels like just yesterday. 


Things I am grateful for: Reason # 6 to Reason #18

I have been meaning to write about these Things I am grateful for for quite some time now. Since a last few months, I have noticed that I have become more grateful and thankful for the things I have in my life. And as a ritual, I have started saying a small thankfulness prayer daily which more or less summarizes all the broad categories of things I am extremely grateful for.

Reason #6

Oh God, Thank you for the wonderful day


Thank you for the wonderful family I am born into. Thank you for my wonderful parents who have given us a splendid upbringing, for loving grandparents who have imbibed in us their values, for uncle, aunt, siblings, cousins, brother, sister-in-law and everyone in the family who I have grown up with.

Reason #8

Thank you for the wonderful family I am married into. Thank you for a wonderful husband, loving parents in-law, and a friend I see in my brother-in-law. And thank you, thank you, thank you once again for the wonderful husband.

Reason # 9

Thank you for the food I eat, the water I drink, the air I breathe, the soil I walk on and for every other your invaluable resources that I use.

Reason #10

Thank you for perfect health. Thank you for every limb, every muscle, every tissue, every cell, every organ in mybody that works miraculously.

Reason #11

Thank you for all those people who unknowingly work for us all and make my our lives easy; the farmers who grow our fruits and veggies, the workers who collect garbage, the construction workers who make houses and buildings in which we live, the people who clean sewers. They all do such an invaluable job and how we take their services for granted. Let me be kinder to them.

Reason # 12

Thank you for wonderful friends I have, who I have grown up with, who I have shared many a jokes with, who I have laughed with, who I have cried with. Friends, without you all life would have been so boring. God bless each one of you and thank you for being my friends.

Reason # 13

Thank you God for the wonderful, new, exciting life in NZ, for the beautiful home, for the car that takes us everywhere we want to go, for scenic, breathtakingly beautiful location and for this fresh, new life.

Reason #14

Thank you God for all the luxuries, travel, opportunities, fun times, experiences and memories

Reason #15

Thank you God for all the comfort, wonderful clothes and small pleasures of life

Reason # 16

Thank You God for beautiful hair, beautiful skin, warm heart and a wonderful mind that makes me take the correct decisions, makes me understand things as they are meant to be and that makes me grasp and learn

Reason #17

Thank You God for the wonderful education that I have received, for the jobs that I have done, for skills, talents, opportunities, for the learning everyday, for the gift of writing, for the new, wonderful job that I will get soon

Reason # 18

Thank you for many small things in life that I take for granted.

And forgive me God for all the mistakes that I have knowingly or unknowingly done.

Frequently Asked Questions

I am answering a lot of these questions lately and thought that it would be best that I make a list of those questions and answer them here; because frankly it’s beginning to get VERRRRY repetitive and kind of boring to keep answering these over and over again. Now don’t you get me all wrong, I am very, very grateful to have so many friends, family and well wishers back home who want to be updated and know what’s happening in my life and I do love them all. (Things I am grateful for: Reason #5)

Here goes:

  1. Hey, How are you doing?
    Answer: Very well, thank you? How are you doing?
  2. How’s NZ?
    Answer: It is so beautiful, scenic, and serene that every time I look around to take in the magnificence that surrounds me, I have to pinch myself to know that I am not dreaming.
  3. Are you working?
    Answer: No, not yet.
  4. How’s the weather there?
    Answer: It’s the end of Summer. It’s about 15 degrees during the day time and about 13 degrees at night. But it’s soooo windy (WINDY) that it feels much colder. To someone like me who has lived in hot and humid (but wonderful) Mumbai all her life, it feels a lot colder. Day before yesterday, it was so windy that the whole house was rattling up. NO KIDDING. Didn’t I tell you before how windy the city is? And we can rarely keep the windows open. It also keeps raining in between.
    P.S: Don’t know if this is Summer, how harsh the winter will be?
  5. Are you working?
    Answer: No, not yet.
  6. How is your hubby (I absolutely detest this word) doing? Where does your hubby work?
    Answer:  My husband is doing good too. My husband works with the Government here as a Business Analyst.
  7. Is TCG his real name?
    Answer: Oh it’s just an epithet!
  8. Are you working?
    Answer: No, not yet.
  9. What do you do all day?
    Answer: I read, write, cook, clean, exercise, wait for TCG to get back and for my family back home to wake up so that I can Skype with them. In short, living an underrated life of a humble housewife.
  10. Are you working?
    Answer: No, not yet.
  11. Are you looking for a job?
    Answer: Not yet
  12. Do you have work Visa?
    Answer: No, Will apply for it in a couple of days.
  13. How long will it take to get your work Visa?
    Answer: It should take 3-4 weeks
  14. Will you get a job easily?
    Answer: It’s not easy but I am hoping I will get lucky, but  my previous work experience in India won’t count. (I know, I know that is very sad). SO I will have to start from scratch (Sigh).
  15. How’s the climate there?
    Answer: Refer to answer 4.
  16. Are you working?
    Answer: No, not yet.
  17. How are the people there?
    Answer: Warm, friendly and smiling
  18. Did you make friends?
    Answer: No not yet, I made acquaintances though.
  19. How do you spend time then?
    Answer: Refer to answer 9.
  20. Does it get lonely?
    Answer: Sometimes it does, but I am not complaining. Yet.
  21. Are you working?
    Answer: No, not yet.
  22. Are there many Indians around?
    Answer: There are few, but I am sure there would be more
  23. Why don’t you join some social group or community or something?
    Answer: I will do that sometime in future. As of now, I am pretty ok.
  24. Did you play Holi?
    Answer: NO
    Holi is an Indian spring-time festival where you colour your friends and family
  25. WHY?
    Answer: Just
  26. But Why? At least you should have put some colour on TCG?
    Answer: Ok, but I didn’t
  27. Oh, poor you! You would have missed Holi!
    Answer: Now, please rest it. Holi has never been my favourite anyway.
  28. You should probably do this/that/A/B/C/D…etc… in your free time
    Answer: Hmmmm…
  29. Are you working? (Sigh)
    Answer: No, not yet.
  30. But why are you not working? You were always so ambitious?
    Answer: Refer to answer 12 and 13
  31. Ok, but are you gonna stay there forever?
    Answer: I wish I knew, but I really don’t as of now.