R-Rated

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...

Another August and another trip outside Mumbai. This time, a trip to the northern most Indian state of J&K to visit the Vaishno Devi shrine near Katra. Thanks to my friend's initiative, who has been visiting the place once a year, the air travel and hotel reservations were done pretty peacefully. A unique way of spending the long weekend as the cheapest possible trip schedule came out to be Sunday-Monday. Alas, at the very last moment, Mayank canceled his tickets due to ill-health. The person who was most looking forward to the trip couldn't make it. As they say, ' Mata ka bulawa aaya nahi is baar ' . So the 2 Mulundites made their way out to Jammu during the wee hours of the morning on a tiring and excruciating journey to Mata's abode. With the first leg of the journey from Mumbai to Delhi being uneventful to say the least - except that the seat left vacant by the absence of the third musketeer was occupied by a young good looking lass :). For the fi...

Dear Riaan and Rivika, This is a letter dedicated to you guys because this day is possible only due to you guys. Get it yet? It's MY first Father's Day - and with that comes a few wishes, a few expectations and a few niceties. It is quite possibly the best 'non-birthday, non-anniversary' day of my life. Mark this date: 15th June 2014. Years from now when you get yourselves on the internet (with or without my permission) and stumble upon this post, I want you to know how much you both mean to me and how cherished and fulfilled I am this Father's Day. You came in to my world 6 months back (well, technically - 15 months back) and life has been simply surreal. For the most part, it's been beautiful and FUN (a very underrated part of this period). People asked, "Is it tough with twins?". I replied with, "It's just two ....Awesome". Life is tough, but you guys were worth the wait. I wouldn't have it any other way. With Mum's ...

Disclaimer: This post contains crude language, so kindly do not proceed if you are offended by those. Incredibly, for me, I voted in the General Elections. It's the first time in my life I have voted at any level (internet surveys do not count). How I got the Voter ID card is another question altogether but that I even got one in the first place is literally mind-blowing. Unfortunately, for several lakh eager voters in Mumbai, their names were not found on the voting lists (what the fuck happened, EC?) Another first for me is that in my adult life in India, this is the only time I have had the opportunity to soak in the election hysteria (2004 and 2009, yours truly was in the US). I have had keen interest in the US Presidential Elections in 2008 and while that was hotly contested and they had several shit-slinging matches between the Republicans and the Democrats, it was nothing compared to what I am witnessing here in India. For starters, it might get confusing to a casual ...