It’s weird how sometimes you ask a question about life and it gets answered in all of 2 hours! You could search for answers all your life on the other hand but sometimes … just sometimes .. it’s like the question traveled through the cosmos and came back in all of 2 hours with the exact answer you needed.
So 2 hours after my last post, the phone rang. My husband answered it. The friend who’d invited us close to 3 weeks ago for food and a chatty evening together. We gladly said we’d come over. They have a doll of a toddler .. it would work out well. They suggested coming over late 7.30 pm and we said yes. One of those rare ones. We haven’t accepted an invitation over to someone’s place that late since we moved here. Trying hard to keep the little one’s routine in tact in the middle of all this change. We said ok this time – there’s a toddler there – how bad can it get!
Two mins after that phone call, neighbor from the floor above called. How about exploring another neighborhood park with the kids – hers and mine?! How about it?! Well awesome idea … d’oh!!! And while we were at the park with the friends, the phone rang. The next door neighbor called. “You’d promised the kids they’d hang out this evening at our place”. I did??? Oh crap I did! So we wrapped up the park in an hour and went over to the neighbor’s apartment @ 6. Joy!! 3 more kids. And this time .. the neighbor and her visiting brother invited us for a cup of coffee while the kids played. The coffee was already made and ready for us to drink. Thoughtful! We chatted over a hot cup of coffee for an hour while the kids happily kept themselves occupied. I looked at my phone – it was 7!! Crap!! Only half hour before I fed my daughter and we left for the friends. I wasn’t going to bother feeding her there and getting myself all worked up by her refusing to eat because she was distracted. 45 mins and a bowl of yummy mac n cheese with Creamy veggie sauce later .. we found our happy daughter busy in her new friend’s room while we chomped away at our yummy paneer pizza. We said our goodbyes 2 hours later. Past her bed time we knew! But we’ll make it a first .. and last. It’s ok. (Famous last words!)
[The girls having a picnic and playing through the evening. What a lovely sight!]
I was back home convincing my cranky sleepy girl that she could go to a new park with a fountain tomorrow if she slept. As she faded away on my lap with the fan blowing at her face I pondered back on the day. This was one unexpected evening! Really!!!! I was tired by all the socializing I’d done but more importantly … maybe I’d stumbled upon something. Despite several friends and family telling me to tame my expectations about the life I was coming back to I had dreamed of this fairy tale, yearned for it and come back to India seeking it. What I might have ended up finding, is real life. There are still people around here. Not the same ones. Ones that I might not call athai chithi mami brother or sister … but I found real life here waiting for me to befriend it. If only I snapped out of the dream I was in! If only I realized that fairy tales were stories of childhood and stories for childhood! Maybe … just maybe … I won’t be busy planning to move to my home town or yet another city in a couple of years … in search of home again.
A rush of blood to the head 
so finally, you had a fun evening, eh? i had a smile on my face while reading this post. yes, if no one is waiting for us then we need to move on. we will find new people on the way. it was a lovely read đŸ™‚