It’s a whole new ballgame

We’ve all heard of the expression “The first day of the rest of your life”, right? For some, that day may be college graduation, the first day at work, or the day you get married. I knew my life was going to change drastically with a baby, but the first day of the rest of my life was not when Fabi was born…or when we came home from the hospital…no….it was when he turned 6 months old. Why? Because now, I have to COOK for him ……EVERYDAY!!!!!

For all of you who have known me for some time, you know how the kitchen is (was!) a completely unknown territory for me. As much as my Mom tried to interest me in cooking (at least ‘something’) I always got away with not having to prepare my own food.

I was told once that in some societies in Africa, I wouldn’t even be considered a woman because I didn’t know how to cook. Too bad!…I was kind of proud of that record of mine: not cooking for more than 30 years!… It’s a good thing I’m not in Africa though…but I will write about the topic of cooking in India in some other post.

You know how some parents wish their kids grow up to be doctors, lawyers or engineers? Well…I’m hoping Fabi grows up to be the next Jamie Oliver . In the meantime I’m also hoping that when he grows up, we can go to Subway together and enjoy a nice sandwich…!

As of now, I have to go and feed him again…he’s eating his foot!

How about you? Do you cook? What’s your favorite recipe?

Disclaimer….and admin stuff

I’ve mentioned before that there are many things I want to share through my blog. The topic of parenting is a recent interest of mine of course, but the topic of ‘cultural differences’ is also one of my favorites. Most of my non-indian friends wonder how my life has changed since I moved to Mumbai and most of my indian friends wonder how I’ve adapted to my new environment.

Before I start writing about my experiences in India, I would like to make it clear that when I refer to something “in India”, I’m really saying “in Mumbai”, without trying to generalize. I’ll just write things how I see them from my own perspective.

India is such a big country (62 times Costa Rica) that it’s hard to describe in short how people think, eat, speak, act, etc…Check out the link on the right, “CIA The World Factbook” to get a glimpse, for example of all the languages spoken in India. To see the statistics is one thing, but to live in the middle of such cultural diversity is another: it’s all very interesting!

Links

Speaking of links…let me know if you have an interesting link that you would like to share. I plan to change the ones listed at the right side of this page.

One more thing: I write in American English (and Costa Rican Spanish), so I use ‘color’ instead of ‘colour’ and ‘neighbor’ instead of ‘neighbour’ (and ‘Setiembre’ instead of ‘Septiembre’). OK? ;)

Also, I would like to know if you have questions or would like me to address something specific here in my blog…Let me know if you have any suggestions for me.

Enlaces

Anteriormente mencionaba que el enlace, que aparece a la derecha de esta página, “CIA The World Factbook “ permite ver los datos de India. Al ver la cantidad de idiomas que se hablan aquí, nos damos cuenta de la diversidad cultural este país. Una cosa es ver las estadísticas, pero otra es vivir en medio de esa diversidad: es muy interesante!

A propósito de enlaces, si tienen algun sitio interesante en Internet que quieran compartir, lo podré incluir en la lista de enlaces. Pienso estarlos cambiando regularmente.

Un enlace útil es el del traductor en línea ‘Systran’. Se digita el texto en el campo donde dice ‘Text’, abajo se escoge el idioma del texto y el idioma en el que se quiere la traducción (por ejemplo, ‘English to Spanish’) y luego se presiona la letra azul ‘S’ (que aparece al lado de los idiomas) para obtener la traducción.
Por último, me gustaría saber si tienen alguna pregunta o si hay algún tema acerca del cual les gustaría que escribiera. ¿Me tienen alguna sugerencia?

Paises que he visitado / Countries I have visited

Para hacer tu propio mapa / To make your own map

Fabi celebrates his Daddy’s B-Day

Fabi’s uncle Sopan and aunt Priya came home to join the celebration bringing chocolate cake and a cool present wrapped in a nice shiny paper!

Many happy returns of the day, Ishan!….

XOXOXO

Happy 'Sixth Month', Fabi!

Six months ago Ishan and I saw Fabi for the first time. He's come a long way!...His baby chair is really shrinking fast and it's a lot of fun to hear him laugh!

To celebrate my sixth month of motherhood, Ishan surprised me with an appointment at the local 'Lakme Beauty Salon'. I just spent three very relaxing hours having a massage and a facial, and my hair looks really shiny and straight, too! During the time I was enjoying getting pampered , Ishan sat at the reception while Fabi flirted with the lady customers who came by the Salon. Thank you boys, I love you guys!

What’s in a name? / El nombre lo dice todo

Definitions:

Masala: Indian expression that means mixture of spices. For example: ‘garam masala’ (‘hot masala’) is a premade mixture of ground spices used for flavoring foods.

¡Pura Vida!: ‘Pure Life!’ - Costa Rican expression to indicate ‘all is great’, also used as a greeting, as in:

-¿Pura Vida? (How are you?)
-¡Pura Vida! (I’m fine!)

I hope to write about many different topics, but mainly, this blog will refer to the mixture of cultural backgrounds that surrounds Fabi in our family. It should be a ‘pura vida’ flavoured experience!


Definiciones:

Masala: expresión de la India que se usa para indicar mezcla de especias. Por ejemplo: ‘garam masala’ (‘masala caliente o picante’) es una mezcla preparada de especias molidas usadas para condimentar las comidas.

¡Pura Vida!: ‘Pure Life!’ - expresión costarricense para indicar que todo está muy bien; también se usa como saludo, por ejemplo:

-¿Pura Vida? (¿Cómo estás?)
-¡Pura Vida! (¡Muy bien!)

Espero escribir acerca de muchos temas diferentes, pero principalmente, esta bitácora se referirá a la mezcla cultural que rodea a Fabi en nuestra familia. ¡Ha de ser una experiencia con sabor a ‘pura vida’!

Finally!.... / ¡Por fin!...

The story so far…

I’ve been wanting to have a blog since I married Ishan and moved to India almost two years ago. I figured it would be great way to keep in touch with friends everywhere and especially with my family in Costa Rica. Now that our baby boy Gaurang Fabian (‘Fabi’) is 6 months old, I decided that it’s about time I start blogging. Most of my entries will be in English…but some will probably be in Spanish. Thanks for reading! Your comments are welcome!


La historia hasta el momento…

He querido tener una bitácora desde que me casé con Ishan y nos mudamos a India hace casi dos años. Creo que es la mejor manera de mantener el contacto con las amistades en todas partes y especialmente con mi familia en Costa Rica. Ahora que nuestro bebé, Gaurang Fabián (‘Fabi’) cumple 6 meses, decidí que ya es hora de empezar a escribir. Escribiré principalmente en inglés….pero algunas veces también en lo haré en español. ¡Gracias por leer! ¡Los comentarios serán bienvenidos!