The Sweet Spot

Proud Indian Americans looked on with their heads held high as they witnessed the Indian Flag being raised at the Acton town hall, accompanied by Jana-Gana-Mana, the Indian National Anthem. The Indian Flag will fly for twenty four hours at the Acton Town Center to commemorate India’s 74th Independence Day, on August 15th 2020. This is happening for the first time in the history of Acton, thanks to the leadership of the Acton Board of Selectmen (BOS) and Sahana Purohit, a Finance Committee member, who stepped  up promptly in response to IAGB (India Association of Greater Boston http://www.iagb.org ) initiative to hoist the Indian flag in 35 New England cities including Nashua, Connecticut and Maine towns. In Acton, the occasion was graced by prominent town representatives such as Massachusetts State Senator Jamie Eldridge, Massachusetts Representatives Tami Gouveia and Dan Sena,  Acton Board of Selectmen (BOS) Chair Jon Benson and Vice Chair Dean Charter, Selectman David Martin, Vice

  My inbox and social media feeds were filled with offers “$0 out of pocket for solar installations”, as I had recently searched for rooftop solar installation prices just out of curiosity. The “smart” marketing apps continued feeding these ads, unaware that we have had a solar installation for the past couple of years. Two years ago I would have cringed at these ads. But now, happy with our installation, I was more patient and willing to give them more credit. Being an ardent follower of clean energy initiatives, we explored solar panel installations including a solar roof, many times over the last decade, years before they were ready for prime time. While we were still exploring, others around us were taking the plunge and reporting complete satisfaction with their installations. I was really impressed to see the system my cousin had installed in India, which p owered all of his law office, which hosted 10+ employees, plus a part of his residence. Finally for us, the stars aligned al

“My favorite was the aluminum colored dress which was glamorous enough to wear to the theater , which we randomly picked from the catalog , but later found it was the same our humorous neighbor with a mustache and smoldering eyes, living in the gray contemporary house, had been marveling about”. I feel liberated writing this sentence and not having to worry about my english teachers in India finding at least ten spelling mistakes! Each of the words in bold is spelled differently in India. Moving from English to American, I struggled with “aluminum”, still sometimes pronouncing the ‘i’ in “alumi n i um ”. But I gladly dropped the “me” from “program me ” or the “u” from “labo u r”. Switching the “re” in “met re ” made sense, and I was ecstatic that a P a ediatrician was officially spelled without the first “a”.  In America, it wasn’t just the language that is simplified. Names were simplified as well. At my first workplace I was introduced to Bill, Liz, Steve, Amy, a c

Willard Carroll Smith Jr. is my all time favorite actor and rapper. Over the years, this Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has continually charmed his audience as they “jiggy wit it”, outdoing himself with each of his performance that has progressively become more endearing and captivating. From the dozens of movies, TV shows and albums in his 30 year career, including his memorable Men in Black series, the heartwarming “The Pursuit of Happyness”, the hilarious “Date Doctor” in Hitch and the epic portrayal of Muhammad Ali, the one I couldn’t take my eyes off was his cameo in the smooth dance number “Radha teri chunri” from the Bollywood movie “Student of the Year 2”. In case you are still wondering who this Willard guy is, I am talking about the Hollywood actor, Will Smith!  July 4th is celebrated as Independence Day in the US, and I have always associated Will Smith to this day. We moved to the US the very year his movie “Independence Day” was released. Popular culture was the first

I woke to the calm rhythm of the trees swaying to the summer breeze and took in one deep, refreshing breath, as the cool gentle breeze brushed past my face. As a matter of habit, and a part of a mindfulness exercise called pranayama, I took in a couple more deep breaths. This kind of breathing is normally a great start for my day. I ordinarily continue with a few more minutes of breathing, which leaves me feeling energized by the sequence of the deliberate exercises. I can focus my rested, ready mind towards the day’s events and intended tasks. But that morning my mind was restless with the thought of how a fellow human being had been deprived of the very breath that I was taking for granted as a part of my existence. The vision of the man imploring his captors, who held him in a chokehold, “I can’t breathe”! And right there, for millions to see, the very people who are meant to protect civilians, deprived him of the precious breath he needed to stay alive. I was engulfed in the

“Kya naam hai?” I could hear Mummy ask our cleaning lady’s little girl her name, in Hindi. I wasn’t surprised when the girl responded, as Mummy had this knack of carrying on a conversation in a universal language of love. Our cleaning lady was surprised. “Oh, your mom speaks Portuguese?” When I said no, she explained “Qual é o seu nome?” is how one asks in Portuguese, which sounded very similar in Hindi. Though that day the question was phonetically similar, on other occasions, despite a language barrier, Mummy never stopped herself from getting her point across. She always had a kind tone, and kind words, wrapped in love, that everyone understood! Of the umpteen values I learned from my second mother for the last almost-thirty years, the one I covet most is to be kind rather than right. Among a family of obsessive arguers, she was the calm one to cool down a heated argument. Though she was right many times, she never felt the need to say “I told you so”. She was never the one

I was running late for a conference call with my favorite canine. I had learned that not every dog is comfortable with FaceTime or video calls, but this particular one made eye contact, picked up visual cues and reacted to sounds of interest from the other side of a smartphone. Leia is a shiny black dachshund-chihuahua mix, and at less than 10 lbs, she carries a lot of weight whether present physically or virtually.  She was our house guest for the month of December, while our son was away traveling. True to her name (she is named after Princess Leia from Star Wars), she acted every bit a princess during her whole stay with us. And now an important part of calls to our son include a meaningful conversation with Her Highness!  Leia responding to a Wolf call A typical call with Leia starts with saying her name in a tone she recognizes and saying her special words like "Dawai" (medicine in Hindi). Yes, "dawai" is her favorite word due to her interest in the t