It has been ages since I last wrote but what better time to return to blogging than on the coat tails of an Obama victory! I am an ardent Obama supporter for those of you who may not know where I stand politically. I do believe he is the best person to unite not only this country but the rest of the world. He is the embodiment of change and of hope and that is what this country desperately needs. As I watched Surya play this morning I realized that the world will be so incredibly different for her than it was for my generation and the generations before me. Up until now there has been a painfully slow transition towards acceptance of "different". The women's movement, civil rights movement, gay movement, all of these movements have taken place over the last 100 years with the goal of arriving where we are today. My generation was probably the last to experience the shift and now Surya will grow up in a world that is so much more tolerant than the one I grew up in. There is of course a long way to go still (a woman in the white house perhaps) in truly being a society of equals but I am certain that it will happen in Surya's lifetime and she will be old enough to realize that she too will take part in history. I never took an interest in politics until this election. Now I feel like it has ignited a passion in me to protect what it is we have finally achieved, change, forward thinking, tolerance. There are of course those who call me an idealist and I 100% agree with them. I am an idealist through and through because I believe that without ideals there is nothing to strive for. Pragmatism is all well and good but we have enough of pragmatists in this world. Now it is time for hope, ideals and a belief that we can be better than what we are and be united in doing so. This is the world I wanted for my kids and it is finally here. Welcome to a brave new world Super Surya!
With that said, last night, the night that will be recorded in history books, I fell asleep at 9:45pm. Not even the effects of motherhood stop for history making events. When Dalip finally woke me up at 12:45am to bring me upstairs the first words out of my mouth were "who won?" When he told me Obama the best I could do was mutter a "yay" through my sleepy daze. I plan on watching the speeches on youtube later today since I heard they were both really good.
On to other news:
So we closed on a house last week and now Dalip and I are the proud owners of a beautiful 1.5 story cape cod home in Highland Park, IL. It is an old home, built in 1946, so there definitely needs some updating but it is cozy and beautiful filled with lots of character. It has 4 bedrooms and soon to have 2.5 baths. We have a big back yard that is home to many a species of bird (Nothing we can take credit for. The previous owners were bird afficionados and have equipped the garden with bird feeders and bath.) When you look out the windows into the backyard you feel like you are looking into Snow White's back yard with little forest creatures everywhere. It is really quite adorable. We are hoping to maintain the ecological wonder in the backyard as we redo the landscaping a bit next summer. I think we should be able to do it. Dalip and I will be taking a crash course in lawn mowing 101 (apparently we will be the only people in the neighborhood to actually mow our own yard), gardening 101 and home maintenance 101. The great part is that the previous owners left us a 3 page letter of all the quirks of the house we should now about and how to fix them so we are looking forwarding to putting the information to good use. I hope to post pictures of the house soon so that you all can see pictures of the new Puri-Shivpuri residence.
What I do have pictures of is halloween in our new neighborhood. After meeting one of our neighbors we learned that the best place for trick-or-treating was on the road running parallel to ours. "Barberry is the place to be for Halloween", she said. So Dalip and I decided to take Surya to our new neighborhood for her first trick-or-treating experience. What an experience it was!!! We brought my mom along with us and as we walked down Barberry street we were all in shock as to the number of families decked out in costumes and homes decorated to the nine's in halloween paraphenalia. It was like visiting a theme park! There were hundreds of people lining the sidewalks and front yards. Almost everyone was in costume from the grandparents to the newborns in strollers. Every house had at least some kind of halloween knick-knack in the front yard and boat loads of candy to distrubute to the parade of children flowing through. It was incredible. Surya, along with the rest of us was in awe. We dressed her up as a fairy with wings and all and she very diligently carried around her pumpkin bag to collect candy in. It took her only about 5 houses to get the hang of walking up to the candy bowl by herself, picking up one candy (towards the end she was trying to grab 2 & 3 candies), putting it in her bag and walking back to us. It was unbelievable. We were so proud she learned to pick up candy so quickly. We took lots of pictures of Surya with what we thought were some of the best spooky halloween home decorations. We probably visited about 20 homes and as we walked home Surya nearly fell asleep on Dalip's shoulder. We gave away most of her candy to trick-or-treaters who showed up at the house as we were packing up to go back to Barrington and the rest Dalip and I are attacking little by little everyday. It's hard, but someone has to do it :)
Well, I am hoping to write again before our departure to India this Saturday. We will be gone for 2 weeks but I will be back with stories and hopefully many pictures. I am looking forward to some good R&R while Surya's aunts and grandmothers entertain her endlessly while we are there. I am of course not looking forward to the disturbance in her sleep schedule but oh well, it is worth it for her to spend time with family. I will be sure to be back with updates! Until then, lots of love and best wishes.
