Me, myself and Anu

I love to wear salwars. I never realized how much until I left India. Wearing coordinating accessories and maii and fancy pottus did not mean much until here when I crave and love it so much. And jasmine flowers..I miss them so, I can’t even begin to describe how much! So off late I have been using every opportunity I have to wear the salwars I have.

Now this brings me to the heart of the story. Characters  and situations in this post are not fictional but merely camouflaged .  I would like to state upfront that I have great respect for people who choose to be home makers. Their kids will definitely appreciate their presence and the fact that they are able to do it is selfless and commendable for sure.  Same for people who chose to go with non-engineering degrees or to not study at all, it is their personal choice. However I have chosen to be neither, I work full-time (though my family may disagree J) and also havea PhD in Electrical Engineering. It is a choice I made.

So when this Saturday dressed in my salwar  I was speaking to one generation older tamilians, the lady asked me where I went to college- she was not expecting me to say BITS, Pilani. She simply ASSUMED that since I was wearing a salwar, spoke tamil and went to Fatima convent, I would have gone to Meenakshi college, how convenient. She went on to say that everyone in chinmaya nagar (where I used to live in India) went only to Meenakshi college. Nice! I have to mention that she was the Head of the Zoology department at that college. I did not know where to laugh or be angry at her. But then it got me thinking.

For starters, how often have I assumed that someone well dressed, outright fashionable is probably a snob. That someone who speaks accented English is showing off and probably not very down to earth. That someone who wears western clothes all the time even to the temple is not Indian enough. And I sometimes have these presumptions in spite of being proved wrong many many times J Don’t we all have our assumptions and our pre conceived notions, I’ll call them. So I decided to forgive her for thinking I went to Meenakshi college and did Bsc. Zoology and married Karthik and got fresh off the boat to come to America and make good sambar and rasam. Though the last part is true J