My Thanksgiving

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

 ~Melody Beattie

In some ways, being abroad during Thanksgiving and the holidays has allowed me to step away from the consumerism that plagues the U.S. and instead reflect on what the holidays are actually supposed to be about.

This is not the first time I’ve been away for Thanksgiving. Yet every holiday I’m away, I’m in a different point in my life and often have a different outlook every time. Some holidays, I’ve prayed they pass by fast so that I can get home that much faster. While others, I enjoy the different cultural adaptations and see them not as a replacement for Thanksgiving or Christmas back home, but instead as a new experience.

As I do reflect on what I’m thankful for, I first have to stop and think how I got to where I am today. Ten years ago, I never thought I’d be living in New Delhi doing an internship as part of my Master’s degree. But knowing that I have supportive friends and family has allowed me to have the peace of mind to leave the country and set off on my own. Without my support system, I don’t know where I’d be. Through the roller coasters of living abroad, they have helped me through my struggles and have been the cheerleaders through my successes. Because when you take away the Christmas music being played on November 1^st and the shoppers scrambling to buy the “need to have” items, to me the holidays are about one thing. Being with the people that love and care for you unconditionally. No distance can take that sense of support away.  

Thanksgiving....Indian style

Back home in the U.S. is Thanksgiving. And since I'm not in the U.S. sitting down at the table with my family having a nice big slice of turkey meat and cranberry sauce, I had to make do with the Indian way. Blanche had felt bad that I wasn't home celebrating Thanksgiving with my family and wanted to make it up to me. When we were talking about it in fact, she was under the impression that Thanksgiving was a bigger holiday than Christmas in the U.S. Hmm....that boggled my mind. It just goes to show how people around the world view the U.S. and our culture and holidays. I guess some people think Thanksgiving is bigger because all Americans celebrate it and Christmas is only celebrated by Christians. Buuuut, I still don't know about that. To me, Christmas is a bigger holiday but Thanksgiving comes in at a close second.

Anywho, so Blanche had said that since I wasn't going to be home for Thanksgiving, she wanted to make it up to me. So, earlier in the week we decided that we would go to the movie theater and catch a Bollywood movie then have some dinner at a very nice Chinese restaurant....because who doesn't like Chinese, right? Early in the week, that was the plan. Then of course "India's 9/11" happened and that plan was shot down. So then we said that we would watch the reality tv that was unfolding on tv aka the terrorist attacks and order in chinese food. It was so sweet of Blanche, because being an American, she wanted me to try American chop suey....Indian's version of it. Boy is it different!! The Indian version of American chop suey is made up of tons of sweet and sour sauce, some little chicken pieces and vegetables. What you're supposed to do is take some crispy Chinese noodles, put them on your plate then pour the sweet and sour chicken mixture over the noodles then top it all off with a fried egg. It was interesting for sure! I thought that there was waaay too much sweet and sour sauce but it was a good combination with the fried egg and noodles...gave it a good texture.

This week I was also supposed to have had a Thanksgiving dinner with Dennis (the director of Champlain College in Mumbai) and his wife. That ended up being rescheduled for tonight due to the terrorist attacks. I have to say, they made a pretty good Thanksgiving dinner from what they had to work with. For dinner, we had some chicken with gravy, stuffing, weird potatoes that were white but sweet, green beans and some rolls. And no Thanksgiving is without a homemade apple pie. You know, I was very impressed by all of this, especially for the fact that almost no kitchens in India have an oven. Apparently Dennis' apartment is that rare 10% of apartments in India with an oven. And because of that rare oven, we were able to have our Thanksgiving.

When I was riding home in a rickshaw after dinner, I couldn't believe how eerie and quiet it still was. It was 11 o'clock at night, but for the shopping happy, club hopping area of Bandra, it was very quiet. People still have that fear in them and that cautious nature about them when going anywhere it seems. Other than when the taxis and rickshaws were on strike, I've never seen it so quiet here. For myself, I will be going to my internship tomorrow (after 2 days of not going) but I'll definitely be taking a rickshaw there rather than the train. I'm still a little nervous to take a train right now.

I'm so happy that I did get out of the house tonight and go to the Thanksgiving dinner at Dennis' place. I have been couped up in the apartment since Wednesday night and it's been slowly driving me insane! I can't even imagine how the people couped up in the hotels downtown feel/felt when they were stuck in their room for over 40 hours (without food and water I might add)! So crazy!