R-Rated

H_LL_ M_MB__ No, your eyes aren't playing tricks and this is definitely not my version of Wordle. If you are looking for the missing "A, E, I, O, and U" that make up the Hello Mumbai title of this blog, well, I got news for you. They have fallen in one of the million different roads that make up the potholes in dear old  Aamchi Mumbai . Hard-working Mumbaikars might as well hold their backs as they get off an auto or their choice of torture mumbling "AIYYO", day in and day out, to and from their place of business. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. I now think that the glitzy high-rises that dot the city's skyline is nothing more than a smokescreen to divert attention of the occupants of a vehicle to avoid looking down at the craters that might put their lives in jeopardy! Hell, screw the moon, ISRO can land the Chandrayaan-3 near Airoli, if it chooses to. Same difference! Rightfully so, we pride on the fact that cashless payments have made humongous strides to make pe...

As I eventually made the nearly 20-hour flight across the Atlantic and Indian oceans to land in Mumbai after a 7.5 year gap, there were quite a few firsts that I wasn't expecting. #1: Dear Emirates Airlines, if you are reading this blog, may I request that you provide a vegetarian meal with NO BRINJAL (EGGPLANT) please. It isn't the most popular veggie by any means and one that I stay away from even if my life depended on it. What happened to good old #Paneer? #2: Dear Mumbaikar (or at least I think you are one) to whom I requested making a phone call, I asked to make a call, not steal your kidney. Where was the famous #SpiritofMumbai that's been advertised as true? #3: Dear Monsoon, please let up a little bit. I don't recall a brutal stretch of downpour ever. Is this the true face of the renowned #SouthwestMonsoonWinds? In the first 2 days of being here, I did notice a world of difference but very little change - at least in my backyard of Mulund (East). Too many under...

I assume there comes a time in everyone's life when you think that you are out of options, out of luck, staring at potentially life-altering uncertainties. You wish, you hope, and you pray harder than you have ever prayed, that you get an answer, any answer that will provide some clarity and direction. Days drag on, weeks turn into endless months building anxiety that I never really felt before.  Then one day, you wake up and find yourself with an unexplainable stroke of good luck. An event that has never happened, only that it happens to you and miraculously, happens for you. Let me explain. The year is 2020 and the back-story goes as far back as 2016. Yes, the year, we came back to Chicago. As a person from India, working in the US requires you to be on a non-immigrant visa, of which there are several types. Without going into the complexities of the US visa system, let's say for the purposes of this story, all we need to know is the term "H-1B". In late 2019, I go ...

Nearly seven and a half years since my last blog post, and now with the family in India (and me about to join them in a couple of weeks), I am reviving or at least attempting to revive, a passion of mine - blogging. So many things have changed since I last posted; parents visited twice (2016, 2019), in-laws visited once (2017), bought a house (2019), kids grew up (thank you Google photos for reminding us time to time what we created), re-connected with old friends, visited my brother (2021), changed jobs (2022), stayed State-side without a chance to visit India (until now) and of course, a world altering event in March of 2020 that brought everyone to their knees and reset how things are meant to be. While I am eternally grateful to have escaped Covid without any long term repercussions, especially with the family, near and dear ones, all in decent health - there were moments that were truly scary and confusing.  The kids, now 9.5 years old, have grown up so fast - and to see them ...

The Andersen family weren't without their share of ups and downs. Ray's older brother, Gary, who was adopted by his parents when he was a month old, didn't say a word until he was about 4. Years, not months! No matter what they did, the boy would not talk. On top of this, Gary turned out to be a scraggly geezer resembling a skeleton with skin on top. No meat, no fat, not pretty! The physical appearance didn't bother Ray Sr. as much as the kid's inability to speak. He could hear but never moved his lips. This condition sometimes led Ray Sr. and Mary Andersen to ponder whether they made a mistake getting home a child who wouldn't start talking when other kids of his age were belting out songs and rhymes at the drop of a hat. There were concerns from his school that while he would do all the things that was asked of him (and he would do everything better than the rest of his class), he wouldn't open his mouth for anything. This had Ray and Gary's parents e...

To those who knew Ray over the years, they would describe him as a dedicated and loving man to his family, father to two gorgeous kids - Rebecca and Ryan, a loyal friend to those who he considered his "band of brothers", a committed worker to his employer - who gave his best and seldom wavered from his beliefs about work place ethics. The "Ideal Man", some would insinuate. Known to all as an ambitious planner and a short fuse in his early years, Ray would be tasked with organization - be it a trip with his group of friends or something as simple as choosing a restaurant to eat. Blessed with a brilliant memory, he remembered everything. He was an Encyclopedia and knew when to flaunt his unique gift. This ability to recall an important event or date was passed down from his father, Ray Andersen, Sr., who in his heydays was the "Internet" before the "Internet". It's in the genes, he would proudly declare. Ray's buddies would regularly p...

11.December.2013 -  11:04 AM, 11:05 AM. The exact time a year ago today, 2 Angels decided to be part of our lives thereby making every possible aspect of it more meaningful and beautiful. That you turned out to be a Girl and a Boy made it much more thrilling than we could have ever imagined. People often said - A complete family in one shot!! (Disclaimer: Our family would have been complete even if we had 2 Riaans or 2 Rivikas). We always maintained that we wanted 2 healthy babies no matter the sex. And we thank God every single day for that. But that's not the point now. The point is that it is your First Birthday and it means 365 wonderful, tense, funny, fantastic and emotional days have passed since you first cried your way into our world - and more importantly, became  our world. Time has flown so quickly and memorably that words will not be enough to justify the joys that you brought for us (but I will still try). I know, I am being too wordy and...