USA Calling

Prabhakar and Neelu had been trying very hard to find a suitable alliance for their only daughter Ridhima. She had done her Master's in Business Administration and had taken up a job near their home. She was very good-looking, well mannered and soft spoken and both parents wished that they could find a groom for her who would be in the same city, so that they could visit her often. They had showered all their love on her and could not even imagine being separated from her.

The boy should have no sisters or brothers, he should have a salary package of not less than Rs. 30 lacs, he should have an independent home… were some of the conditions they had laid down. They turned down good alliances as the boy had settled abroad. They did not wish that their daughter should live far away from them. They could not find anyone meeting all their criteria. Ridhima would turn 28 in a couple of months and they were constantly worried about it. Just then, Prabhakar's friend, Raghav, who had settled down in the US, had come to India on a holiday and visited Prabhakar. Ridhima was at home as it was a Sunday and when Raghav saw her, he immediately expressed his desire to have Ridhima as his daughter-in-law.

• Prabhakar was at first taken aback, but when all of them sat and discussed it, they were inclined to agree as Ridhima would be going into a known family. The next day, Raghav came with his wife and son, Prateek to "see" Ridhima. As both parties happily agreed to the alliance, the formal engagement took place the same evening and Prabhakar arranged for the wedding to take place within a week. Ridhima had her US visa ready as she had been selected for an onsite assignment in the company where she was working. There was therefore, no hassle for her to travel with Prateek after the wedding. Prabhakar also managed to get their marriage registered, and Ridhima was all set to go.

Prabhakar and Neelu went on one shopping spree after another and packed Ridhima's suitcases to capacity. Though they did all the shopping with great love and excitement, the thought that Ridhi would soon be far away, dampened their spirits. With a heavy heart, they bade farewell to Raghav and his family. Once they had reached and settled down in the US, Ridhi made it a point to call her parents at a fixed time every day and update each another with the day's happenings. They were relieved that internet cut down the distance between both the families.

Prabhakar and Neelu were finding it extremely difficult without Ridhi. Even when Ridhi was around, she would be in the office for most of the day, but they eagerly looked forward to spending the evenings with her. They would frequently go on picnics and have a good time. Neelu would cook dishes specially for Ridhi – their whole world revolved around her.

Time is a great healer, they say and soon a couple of months had gone by and Prabhakar and Neelu had got adjusted to being without Ridhi. Their fortieth wedding anniversary was soon approaching and they had decided to spend a week in a tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh where they had heard about a fine jungle resort. Raghav too would have been married for forty years as there was only a month's difference between their wedding dates. When they spoke to Ridhi one evening, they told her about their plan. Ridhi then told them that Prateek had decided to gift his parents with a Norwegian cruise and that they would be away for nearly a month. In fact, she wished that they should come over to Cumberland and celebrate their anniversary with them. 

Prabhakar said that as they had already made their plans and were yet to apply for their visa, they would not be able to visit the US now. In any case, Ridhi asked them to apply for their visa so that they would be able to travel whenever the next opportunity arose.

Pranbhakar and Neelu spent a very memorable time at the resort and for the first time in many years felt very happy. Raghav and Smriti too enjoyed the cruise and when they returned home, they were greeted by the glad news that they would soon be grand- parents. Raghav immediately called Prabhakar to tell him to be in preparedness to be with them in Cumberland to welcome the baby.

Prabhakar and Neelu were delighted to hear of it. Their joy knew no bounds and immediately they pursued their visa application, for in a few months they would be in the US! Their calls to Ridhi were more frequent and the list of things that had to be taken from India kept swelling. As the date of delivery was fast approaching, they got their tickets booked and landed in New York.

Raghav and Prateek were at the airport to receive them. As they had landed on a Sunday, there was only skeleton staff at the airport, and they were delayed at the immigration desk. Once they were through, they went to the conveyor belt to look for their baggage only to see that the bags were strewn all over the place. There were several trolleys lined against the wall and when Prabhakar tried to pull one, it would not come out. Only later did he realise that unless a fee of $5 was paid, the trolley could not be unlocked. 

Prabhakar and Neelu were so excited to see Ridhi that they exchanged loud greetings, only to be told by Ridhi that they ought to speak softly. She also asked Neelu to walk gently lest the people downstairs object. Ridhi then showed them to their room. Both of them were a little upset at this reception. After a while, they all got together at the dining table for lunch. Neelu had unpacked some of her bags and handed over all that she had brought for Ridhi.

As they sat chatting after lunch, Smriti told them that she was happy that Prabhakar and Neelu were around, as both Raghav and she had to leave the next day for San Jose to help her sister arrange for her nephew's wedding which was fixed at a very short notice. She showed Neelu the house so that she could familiarise herself with its settings when Ridhi would be in the hospital.

Early next morning Neelu went into the kitchen, planning to make some masala puris. Smriti and Raghav had to leave around 9 o'clock and she intended to pack some for their travel. She had made the dough and kept the frying pan on the gas with the oil. Within a few minutes an alarm went off and Prateek came rushing to the kitchen to switch off the gas and divert the smoke which had been detected, by waving a large towel. Fortunately, the alarm was silenced soon. Prateek then told her that whenever they had to fry anything, it would be done in the garage and not in the kitchen.

First lesson learnt. Neelu then went for her bath and realised that she had to jump into the water tub to bathe. As she was having her bath, she realised that the water was coming on to the bathroom floor. She also saw that the gap between the tub and the floor had been sealed with plaster of Paris which was now giving away.

Somehow, she dried herself and came out and told Prateek about it. He looked a bit irritated and while drying up the water and then sealing it with duct tape, he asked Ridhi why she had not alerted Neelu and Pranav about it. Neelu was quite upset that he chid her on this issue.

Raghav and Smriti left after breakfast and would not let Neelu make the masala puris as they planned to have food on the way. With nothing going right since morning, Neelu decided to make some coffee for Raghav and herself. When she opened the fridge, she was confused seeing three different cans of milk. There was whole milk, 2% milk and lactose free milk. She did not know which she should use. As Ridhi was resting, she did not wish to disturb her and used the whole milk to make coffee. She searched for sugar and found it to be like powder and not granular. Though she had put two heaped spoonfuls in her cup, it was not at all sweet. Prabhakar and she took their coffee and sat on the patio to savour it. They were pleasantly surprised to see some deer approaching them and were wondering what they could feed them. Hearing them, Prateek hurriedly came out and asked them to go inside without petting the animals. They rushed in to be told that if they started to feed the deer, they may invite trouble with the Animal Lovers' Association, which was very particular in tracking what was fed to them.

Soon after, Prabhakar had his bath and as was his practice, had washed his undergarments and opened the door to go out and dry them in the backyard. He hardly opened the door when the alarm started beeping loudly. Again Prateek ran to shut it off and then make a couple of calls to the police station and a friend to apologise that the alarm had gone off erroneously.

After this incident, Prateek and Ridhi made both Prabhakar and Neelu sit and note down all the security arrangements made in the house so that such an instance may not recur. Neelu had brought her pooja kit with the Laddoo Gopal and other small deities with a small lamp and an agarbatti stand. She set them in one corner of the kitchen and after lighting the lamp, lit an agarbatti too before she started to pray. This time it was Ridhi to come rushing in to put off the agarbatti. "Mummy, only this morning the smoke detector started wailing when the oil was heated for puris. Now it will start off again due to your agarbatti. This is not India. When you go back, you can do all this at home". 

Snubbed once again, Neelu had started to feel why at all they agreed to come to the US. She had also not expected that Ridhi would be so caustic. Anyway, now that they were here, she decided to keep all the tips in mind and see that they do not cause any nuisance. When Ridhi went for her bath, she examined the fridge to see what vegetables were available to prepare lunch. She saw a large cabbage and some capsicums. She decided that she would make capsicum sambar and cabbage curry. She started chopping the cabbage when Ridhi came out of her bath and stopped her from chopping it further.

"Mummy! Why do you have to do all this? You should have asked me before planning to do what you want. Look here", she said. She then opened one of the doors of the fridge, where several foil containers were neatly arranged. She pointed out the day and date labels on each of them. Cooked food, neatly labelled, had been prepared for the entire week! The turn to cook would come only next Saturday, when wholesale cooking would be done in a marathon session for the whole week.

At lunch time, the day's pack was removed, heated in the microwave and served. Neelu felt her head reeling. She was unused to all this. At home, she would enjoy cooking for her family where each one had different tastes. Most of her time was spent in the kitchen, whipping up yummy food to suit all palates. She felt restless, and yearned to do something, for Ridhi. She decided to make rava laddoo. She had suji in a container and also knew where she could find ghee, sugar and some cardamoms.

Accordingly, she first roasted the suji and set up the mixie jar to powder sugar first and the suji later. She had just started the mixie, when Prateek came and shut it off immediately, saying that he was on a call as he was working from home. Ridhi coming to know of this, came to ask why she could not sit quiet in a place.

One morning Prabhakar and Neelu decided to go for a walk and left the house after telling Ridhi. They had not gone far when they saw a grocery store which was open 24x7. They were tempted to have a look inside and were so carried away by the attractive fruits and vegetables, that without giving it a second thought, bought many items. Only after paying the bill, they realised that whatever they had bought was too heavy even for both of them to carry. Anyway, they had bought them – they have somehow got to reach home.

Just then, as if from nowhere, a young boy picked up a few bags from their hands and started walking towards their home. They could not keep pace with him, but were surprised that he knew exactly where they lived. When they reached home, he had already left leaving the bags at their doorstep!

Ridhi opened the door and let out a lot of steam. "Who asked you to go and buy all this stuff? More than that, why did you ask Vikram to carry all this? People will think that we are ill treating our parents making them buy things which they cannot even carry home! Please do not indulge in all this anymore", she barked and went inside. 

In a couple of days, Ridhi had to be admitted in the hospital as pains had started. Typical of any Indian mother, Neelu had kept all the bags ready for the hospital. She had made several napkins from her old white cotton sarees and Prabhakar's dhotis. She packed them all as well as baby powder and other things to be taken to the hospital.

Fortunately, Ridhi did not suffer the labour pain for long and delivered a bonny boy. Neelu had kept the receiving towel ready to take the baby from the nurse after she had bathed the new born. She had also brought the hand-me-downs as it was the custom of using old clothes for the baby at least for a few days. The nurse merely scoffed at it all and brought out brand new sets of linen for the kid. She told Neelu in no uncertain terms, that in the US, the child could only wear branded nappies and not any granny nappies.

Neelu swallowed all insults but stayed back in the hospital to relieve Prateek who had not rested at all. In a couple of days, both Ridhi and the baby came home. One morning, Neelu gave the baby a bath and after wiping it dry, applied baby powder. Ridhi who caught sight of her just then shrieked: "Please, mummy – the doctor said that we should not use any baby powder as it would close all the pores in the baby's skin!" 

Neelu and Prabhakar felt that they were quite stifled in this atmosphere and wished to get back home at the earliest. Bringing up babies too had undergone a revolutionary change. The younger generation practices widely differed from the earlier one. Both of them decided that once Prateek's parents returned, they would come back home.

They pulled on for a fortnight till Raghav and Smriti returned. Citing some important papers to be executed, Prabhakar and Neelu returned home. As soon as they landed in Mumbai, both let out a sigh of relief! 

Prabhakar and Neelu were sitting in the balcony gazing at the stars. They did not miss their daughter any more. "She is grown up – let her shoulder her responsibilities and discharge her duties. We need our space and they need theirs. The ways of bringing up children are so contradictory between generations, that we cannot change our ways and views", Neelu kept saying.

When Ridhi kept calling again and again, Prabhakar and Neelu had the same answer to give: "Let us live the way we want and you may live the way you want. Then only we can live in peace and not in pieces." US was calling, but both of them stood their ground.