A Gorgeous Trip Home

A city and a place are only worth as much as you decide they are worth to you. You can only appreciate them when you have a frame of reference. Unfortunately for Mumbai, I was losing my reasonable frame of reference. It had been so long since I had been home to the US, that I was building it up in my head and making unfair comparisons between Mumbai and Manhattan. I was consistently and constantly punishing the former for not meeting the standards of the latter. Standards that I was creating in my mind, never to be achieved in real life Gotham.

Mumbai is hard. But so is Manhattan. I can forget that the gritty side of Manhattan is challenging and frustrating, just like most sides of Mumbai are challenging and frustrating. A trip back to the big smoke revealed friends and reunion dinners and lots of good times- but it also reminded me that NYC isn’t perfect, nor is my life there perfect. I enjoy it, I love it, but it is not the fairytale to which I compare Mumbai.

But both cities completely fail the comparison with Connecticut. Sunshine, rainbows, butterflies…and my Mom’s house. Full of clean sheets, dried flowers, framed photographs, endless high quality kitchen tools and fresh fresh fresh produce in the refrigerator, literally begging to be turned into a home-cooked creation. Old blankets and a new toothbrush (because I typically forget mine) are always available in her seemingly bottomless closets.

My work was kind enough to allow me two weeks vacation due to my broken wrists, and what a two weeks they were!

I lounged around my Mom’s, went to Cleveland for Sonja’s baby shower, stayed for a veritable “baby shower party weekend” with my family and my brother/sister-in-law’s friends:

Went to Boston and celebrated the engagement of my sister Annie and the wonderful Shoe Banerjee (also, Annie is now going to be Annie Banerjee…or Annie Bannie..hehe)

And met their OUT OF CONTROL kitten, who does ridiculous things like steal small items from all around the house and hoard them in his own little hiding box

Made awesome meals that I can only have at home:

Avocado Toast sandwich

Lentil Loaf

Spinach and Rice Salad

Cuddled with Marylou

Saw Andrew in Manhattan

(This is an old pic, from a picnic sometime in 2007. I think he’s big on internet privacy, hence the turned face )

Visited Camp Mohawk and spent some time with my old Boss

All in all, it was exactly what I needed to recharge, reconnect, and recommit to living my “Best Life”.