A questionaire to Indian women settled in US

1.Do your children prefer only pasta, noodles, sandwich and other western dishes for breakfast and lunch?

My children eat dosa, upma, sevai, cereal etc for breakfast and rice, roti for lunch and noodles once in a while.

2. Do you cook Indian food at least once in a day?

Every single day. My children prefer Indian food. They both like spice and flavor in their food. My little one hates pizza just like me. So not much of a western influence in our diet in spite of 15+ years here.

3. Do you always prefer to wear western dresses when you go out?

Yes I do. But I used to wear them in India. I am just more comfortable in them.

4. Do you put pottu on your forehead every day?

No I don't. I never used to do in India.

5. Do you allow your children to choose subjects on their own for the degree course or you force upon them your choice?

My children are younger, but I don't think I ever will. My dad certainly didn't force either my brother or me in India. In fact my brother did an Arts degree because he was interested in journalism.

6. Are you very particular about maintaining the status and keep buying unwanted things?

No.

7. Do you converse in your mother tongue with your children?

Yes.

8. According to the saying, “when you are in Rome do as Romans do.” Will you allow your children dating?

No.

9. Do you throw parties for birthdays and anniversary every year?

Kid's birthdays.

10. If given the option would you like to return to India?

Yes.


I would say this will be the response of most of my Indian friends here, and they come from various parts of India.

 

LOL no problem...I love my indian heritage and my children love talking about their indian heritage in school. I give all credit to my parents who allowed us to embrace all of the good in our desi culture, yet also knew that it was importance to assimilate to american culture so we as children would never "feel out of place". Things were different back then in the 70's and 80's..not from discrimination standpoint, but from a technology standpoint. You know from visiting india...my children loved new delhi, I took them to the hospital where I was born (jeevan nursing home...LOL)..and they loved mumbai. We have taken them to Vaishno devi, the golden temple (my husband is a clean shaven sikh), taj mahal, the caves off the island of mumbai, kashmir, punjab. And we still have so much more to visit. The world is really small, problems are the same...but we are all bonded by our indian heritage. My in-laws have always been flexible and love the fact that I teach the kids both sides of religion (I coordinate the youth group at my temple).

Funny thing is, that alot of us who were brought up in this country are not really as "ABCD" as one might think!!!

 

1. Do your children prefer only pasta, noodles, sandwich and other western dishes for breakfast and lunch?No kids yet
2. Do you cook Indian food at least once in a day? Yes,Twice
3. Do you always prefer to wear western dresses when you go out? Sometimes i wear Jeans while going for shopping.Always I wear Salwars for get togethers.
4. Do you put pottu on your forehead every day? Yes
5. Do you allow your children to choose subjects on their own for the degree course or you force upon them your choice? I will not force them.They have to make their own choice.
6. Are you very particular about maintaining the status and keep buying unwanted things?Nope.I like to buy only necessary items as we won't get settled here
7. Do you converse in your mother tongue with your children?NA
8. According to the saying, “when you are in Rome do as Romans do.” Will you allow your children dating?NA
9. Do you throw parties for birthdays and anniversary every year?NO
10. If given the option would you like to return to India? Yes very much.Would like to settle in India

 

Dear PS madam

A good questionnaire...! It is nice to see a lot of like minded friends here.

1. Do your children prefer only pasta, noodles, sandwich and other western dishes for breakfast and lunch - My son likes both dosai and macaroni. I make mostly Indian, but pasta, sandwich, noodles etc.,
2. Do you cook Indian food at least once in a day - Most of the time twice a day.
3. Do you always prefer to wear western dresses when you go out - I wear trousers/skirts to work. But, when I go to temples, it is either saree or salwar. It used to be like that when visiting Indian friends, but now wear jeans and kurti as well.
4. Do you put pottu on your forehead every day - Every day even to work( the size is smaller when at work ). Like somebody else mentioned wear thaali as well.
5. Do you allow your children to choose subjects on their own for the degree course or you force upon them your choice - Too early as my elder son is only 3 and half, but this is a topic discussed by me and DH often times.
6. Are you very particular about maintaining the status and keep buying unwanted things - No, we never buy a thing we don't need. As for status, we really don't worry about such things.
7. Do you converse in your mother tongue with your children - Yes, we speak to our children in Tamil. When introducing objects did both in Tamil and English. We speak in Hindi when we want to speak about the child or when we want the child not to understand. But, our fear is he might soon pick up Hindi as well.
8. According to the saying, “when you are in Rome do as Romans do.” Will you allow your children dating - Not sureas of now, that is a worry though.
9. Do you throw parties for birthdays and anniversary every year - Yes for my son's birthday, mostly with kids. Plan to do that for the second son as well.
10. If given the option would you like to return to India - YES.