As for family, my daughters 10 and 6 are indeed my beautiful bundles of inspiration, energy and joy. Back in the US, through several moves, I can safely claim I have thoroughly enjoyed their early childhood years doing so many different things with them. Snuggling to read picture books and the innumerable visits we have made to our local libraries for story-time programs will always remain fond in our memory. And I am forever grateful to them for giving me the joys of seeing the world around me. Through their wee little hands, feet, eyes...and through their love for books and stories, once again!
Now, my family lives in Chennai, India, where both my husband and I grew up. I continue my work here. Meeting kids brings me immense joy. Through my reading sessions, I am proud and blessed to have met over a thousand little ones in all age groups, since the move last summer.
The move back to India has been endlessly inspiring and stimulating. A soulfully designed home where the pace of our lives can be defined in just three words - simpler, slower and smaller. A place where can grow our own pappayas and mangoes. A brick oven for a pizzeria (Ram's Farm) is a recent adventure .I am also grateful for the opportunity to finally live close to extended family and to be able to bring my daughters up in the culturally rich, but known near and far for its forever-hot-and-humid weather that is the city of Chennai.
As I type this in the wee hours, I hear the waves crashing in on the shore of the Bay of Bengal, only a couple of blocks from where I live. I can't help but think of one of Raffi's songs that we have listened to countless times cruising traffic in Los Angeles, crossing dusty open fields in Oklahoma, passing verdant mountains of Virginia... Down By the Bay, Where the Watermelons Grow, Back to my Home, I dare not go..or should it be "I'd love to go"?;It indeed is great to be home.
