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Starring:
Dad, mom (me), nanamma (dad’s mom), Boys – 12 year old Ky and 8 year old Moksh.

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Continued from Monday

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Tuesday

I wake up Ky at 7am and he complains that his nada (a rope that’s used to hold a petticoat up underneath a saree) has come off. Every night he ties his feet with the nada because “he moves too much in sleep”. He has been a kinetic learner in class, he had told me during his first days of 6th grade last year. That means his teachers allow him to walk in class while he listens because he can’t sit still. A few teachers (whom I love very much now) don’t allow that behavior. Stranger things seem to be happening in the world anyway. Phantom vibration syndrome is now a medical disorder which is the perception that your phone is vibrating even though its not.

I listen to a little bit of the book “Where did you go Bernadette” for our upcoming book club while doing laundry. In news, President Trump is mad, saying all this Russian business is “fake news” made up by the Democrats. I hear this on the Unmistakable Creative podcast, “Indians believe in a deferred life plan, because they believe in reincarnation.”

I make a few house keeping changes to my mom’s blog. Using Lekhini.org, I translate English to Telugu:
manam minus nuvvu is equal to otti nenu
manam mainas nuvvu Ij eekval Tu oThThi nEnu
మనం మైనస్ నువ్వు ఈజ్ ఈక్వల్ టు ఒఠ్ఠి నేను. When we talk, she tells me about her latest blog post based on her trip to Dharamshala, an Indian city which is home to Dalai Lama and his followers who live in exile.

I get a reminder about this event tonight, Groomsbridge Clubhouse 7:00pm to 9:00pm to meet the candidates who are running for Post 2 on the Johns Creek City Council. Medlock Bridge has many planned and pending development projects surrounding our subdivision that affect our quality of life, the silt in the lake, plus potential widening of Rte. 141 Medlock Bridge rd to 6 lanes. I need to go to find out “where do they stand on the issues I care about”, so I too can be a part of the “informed electorate”.

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My aunt sends me this: The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia Peachtree Junior is an event for kids of all ages. The event, held at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, will feature a 3K timed run for kids ages 7-14, a 1/2K for ages 5-9 and 50m dash for ages 6 & under. EVENT IS RAIN OR SHINE. I go on their website to eagerly sign up before realizing there is a fees. Duh, there is always a fee.

I reply to the invite of a 5-year old’s birthday party and RSVP that Moksh will attend but Ky is “taller and heavier than me. It’s not fair for those ropes and slides.” I bring Moksh back from school and show off the Squatty potty I bought at Costco over the weekend. Here’s a chance to now live like an American and go like an Indian. Finally!

*

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Moksh cries while watching videos on YouTube because he is scared after watching an ad before a Studio C video but he doesn’t want to scare me by telling me what it is. I tell him sadness when divided gets smaller and happiness when divided just explodes into huge chunks of glee.

Here’s my friend’s Whatsapp message to our Chai (Indian tea) group:
A very touching story from China:
_____________________________

朣楢琴执㝧执瑩浻牡楧㩮㔱硰执㝧执獧浻牡楧敬瑦瀰絸朣杢㑳执獧扻捡杫潲湵潣潬㩲昣昸昸㬸慢正牧畯摮椭慭敧敷止瑩札慲楤湥楬敮牡氬晥⁴潴敬瑦戠瑯潴牦浯㡦㡦㡦潴捥捥捥戻捡杫潲湵浩条㩥眭扥楫楬敮牡札慲楤湥潴昣昸昸攣散散戻捡杫潲湵浩条㩥洭穯氭湩慥牧摡敩瑮琨灯㡦㡦㡦捥捥捥㬩慢正牧畯摮椭慭敧獭氭湩慥牧摡敩瑮琨灯㡦㡦㡦捥捥捥㬩慢正牧畯摮椭慭敧楬敮牡札慲楤湥潴昣昸昸攣散散戻捡杫潲湵浩u条㩥楬敮牡札慲楤湥潴昣昸昸攣散散汩整㩲牰杯摩䐺䥘慭敧牔湡晳牯楍牣獯景牧摡敩瑮猨慴瑲潃潬卲牴昣昸昸䔬摮潃潬卲牴攣散散㬩潢摲牥硰猠汯摩⌠㙣㙣㙣搻獩汰祡戺潬正潭潢摲牥爭摡畩㩳瀲㭸漭戭牯敤慲楤獵㈺硰敷止瑩戭牯敤慲楤獵㈺硰戻牯敤慲楤獵㈺硰执獧搴摻獩汰祡戺潬正瀻獯瑩潩㩮敲慬楴敶执獧搴筮楤灳慬㩹湩楬敮戭潬正漻敶晲潬
朣楢琴执㝧执瑩浻牡楧㩮㔱硰执㝧执獧浻牡楧敬瑦瀰絸朣杢㑳执獧扻捡杫潲湵潣潬㩲昣昸昸㬸慢正牧畯摮椭慭敧敷止瑩札慲楤湥楬敮牡氬晥⁴潴敬瑦戠瑯潴牦浯㡦㡦㡦潴捥捥捥戻捡杫潲湵浩条㩥眭扥楫楬敮牡札慲楤湥潴昣昸昸攣散散戻捡杫潲湵浩条㩥洭穯氭湩慥牧摡敩瑮琨灯㡦㡦㡦捥捥捥㬩慢正牧畯摮椭慭敧獭氭湩慥牧摡敩瑮琨灯㡦㡦㡦捥捥捥㬩慢正牧畯摮椭慭敧楬敮牡札慲楤湥潴昣昸昸攣散散戻捡杫潲湵浩u条㩥楬敮牡札慲楤湥潴昣昸昸攣散散汩整㩲牰杯摩䐺䥘慭敧牔湡晳牯楍牣獯景牧摡敩瑮猨慴瑲潃潬卲牴昣昸昸䔬摮潃潬卲牴攣散散㬩潢摲牥硰猠汯摩⌠㙣㙣㙣搻獩汰祡戺潬正潭潢摲牥爭摡畩㩳瀲㭸漭戭牯敤慲楤獵㈺硰敷止瑩戭牯敤慲楤獵㈺硰戻牯敤慲楤獵㈺硰执獧搴摻獩汰祡戺潬正瀻獯瑩潩㩮敲慬楴敶执獧搴筮楤灳慬㩹湩楬敮 戭潬正漻敶晲潬
_____________________________

I feel like crying
Especially that part when he said: 汦睯攺

*

At 3pm, I make rotis with nanamma’s help, and we both listen to Paripoornanda Saraswathi’s adhyatmika saadhana discourse from an iPad that’s propped up precariously on the kitchen island where were cook. Moksh is making music on his keyboard and he sits quietly for a long time to think of a story idea for his homework. His dad is upstairs working from home today because of “allergies”. So, after I make tea, we go and deliver it to him along with some snacks I bought at the Indian store.

Ky comes from school and he opens his Google chrome book right away to watch “5 NBA records that will never be broken” on YouTube. He shows me the functionality of how to press the Y on the chrome address bar, to search for anything on YouTube by pressing tab. He plans to make my life easy with hacks, he tells me. Hugely ironical.

Later as they are playing wall ball in the side yard, I realize Ky hasn’t told me about his weekend long camp with his boy scouts troop. He tells me how Jacob had looked up to the sky while they ate smores to spot the Orion constellation. He tells me about some of the funny skits the children acted out around the fireplace late into the night.

“Two guys go for camping and one of them sleeps outside the tent and one inside. The guy outside is afraid of the blue monsters that are harassing him and so he goes and wakes up the guy in the tent. Together they come out to check on them and they don’t find any monsters. The same thing happens the next night. And so the third night, the guy who sleeps inside says that he will sleep outside and see for himself if there are any monsters at all. The monsters come, but since they have been harassing this guy who has been sleeping outside all along, they decide to torment the guy who is sleeping inside.”

*

Dad wraps up work and comes downstairs to ask “how Ky is doing in his ELA (English Language Arts)”. He tells him that English is the only language American kids learn and so its important to be good at it. And I jump on this occasion to ask Ky what the spelling of Language is. Instead of answering me, Ky says, “What now, you are going to ask my GPA, my social security number and on and on and on”. He doesn’t understand “why we have to ask him so many questions about his life everyday?”

I go to the city council candidate meet-and-greet before heading over to see Swami. We listen to “Starboy by The Weeknd”, not the clean version on loop while we drive half an hour to the temple in full volume and windows rolled down. Nanamma stared out of the window while the kids said “you are so inappropriate mom” yet again.

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After the discourse as we are headed home, there is a huge thunderstorm and we arrive home to see our recycle bins have both blown away some where in the wind. We circle our road up and down twice to spot one of them, but not the other one. Is it in the school yard, we discuss for 10 minutes before deciding to take it up the next morning.

Ky says “mom, you know what is sad, Dude perfect has just released a video and I can’t watch it because I have a project to work on”. After one hour of homework, before going to bed at 10:30pm he watches, “Dude Perfect vs. Power Rangers by Dude Perfect”. Go YouTube.

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Continued on Wednesday

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The Indian American Life

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