I smiled to myself as Sunday approached and was charged up especially after lunch.
It was the fourth Saturday of May and I was going to meet up with a few friends for coffee at 3 pm as we usually do every month. Let me give you a little background here. As I have already mentioned, I am in Germany from last 2 months and would be here for a couple of months on official assignment. Being a very social and amicable person, I immediately started searching something like a social group where I could integrate myself and not feel lonely in this distant country. I happened to find many different communities on Facebook, whose members were very much in and around the place where I am currently put up. And from those different communities, we had managed to assemble members into group, where we all speak a common language, Marathi. It is a group exclusively for women and women of all ages are invited here. Many are working mothers; a few are home makers here. They have given up their jobs and careers to take care of their kids and their husbands. The calender in Facebook is set to the last or second last Sunday of every month for the event.
This would be my second time for the meet. Last month, I met many new and wonderful ladies and had a nice time listening to them and talking to them. They all were so beaming with energy and enthusiasm, it was very easy to get charged up by just seeing them all laughing and chatting. This Sunday was a different scene, we were only 5 people who could manage on that cold and rainy afternoon and that was also an experience in itself. We met up at a common place and then went to a nice and cosy coffee shop called La Venice nearby. It was crowded and teeming with people, felt really good to hear some noise and giggles in the background. Young and old had gathered there with family and friends and we could find a small corner at the back for ourselves and we set off like we were waiting to get an opportunity to start talking.
Our talks ranged from parenting to usual saas-bahu banter. We spoke about books and movies and talked about the film personalities and their lives and our likes and dislikes for them. We sipped hot, brewing coffee in between and we hardly knew what time it was and whether it had stopped raining outside. I realized one thing, how comforting it was to share a table and sit across someone who shares your thoughts, concerns and beliefs. We all were relaxed today and not in a hurry to get back to our "other" life as mother, wife and a home maker. We all were our individual selves, expressing ourselves without thinking, what the other person will think about us or how he/she will judge us. We all were talking with each other, as though we knew each other from a long time. We shared our worries, our concerns, our problems with each other and also seeked for solutions and advice. We also expressed the need to venture out from the usual chatting and gossiping and doing something fruitful and informative. Our 'leader', J, immediately offered to have a brain-storming session on ideas and we decided to tell it to our other friends who couldn't make it for the coffee event this time. The Gudhi padwa event was already a hit and we were thinking on the lines of having a grill party and so the planning had to begin now for the next get-together with husbands and kids.
On the way back, I was smiling to myself.
Friends make lives so easy and comforting!! Family is and will always remain the first priority for most of us here, but friends unleash the hidden talents in you, encourage you to speak your mind, accept you as you are and help you become a better person. Thanks J for introducing me to this group. I am already feeling good about being in this country now.
:-)
It was the fourth Saturday of May and I was going to meet up with a few friends for coffee at 3 pm as we usually do every month. Let me give you a little background here. As I have already mentioned, I am in Germany from last 2 months and would be here for a couple of months on official assignment. Being a very social and amicable person, I immediately started searching something like a social group where I could integrate myself and not feel lonely in this distant country. I happened to find many different communities on Facebook, whose members were very much in and around the place where I am currently put up. And from those different communities, we had managed to assemble members into group, where we all speak a common language, Marathi. It is a group exclusively for women and women of all ages are invited here. Many are working mothers; a few are home makers here. They have given up their jobs and careers to take care of their kids and their husbands. The calender in Facebook is set to the last or second last Sunday of every month for the event.
This would be my second time for the meet. Last month, I met many new and wonderful ladies and had a nice time listening to them and talking to them. They all were so beaming with energy and enthusiasm, it was very easy to get charged up by just seeing them all laughing and chatting. This Sunday was a different scene, we were only 5 people who could manage on that cold and rainy afternoon and that was also an experience in itself. We met up at a common place and then went to a nice and cosy coffee shop called La Venice nearby. It was crowded and teeming with people, felt really good to hear some noise and giggles in the background. Young and old had gathered there with family and friends and we could find a small corner at the back for ourselves and we set off like we were waiting to get an opportunity to start talking.
Our talks ranged from parenting to usual saas-bahu banter. We spoke about books and movies and talked about the film personalities and their lives and our likes and dislikes for them. We sipped hot, brewing coffee in between and we hardly knew what time it was and whether it had stopped raining outside. I realized one thing, how comforting it was to share a table and sit across someone who shares your thoughts, concerns and beliefs. We all were relaxed today and not in a hurry to get back to our "other" life as mother, wife and a home maker. We all were our individual selves, expressing ourselves without thinking, what the other person will think about us or how he/she will judge us. We all were talking with each other, as though we knew each other from a long time. We shared our worries, our concerns, our problems with each other and also seeked for solutions and advice. We also expressed the need to venture out from the usual chatting and gossiping and doing something fruitful and informative. Our 'leader', J, immediately offered to have a brain-storming session on ideas and we decided to tell it to our other friends who couldn't make it for the coffee event this time. The Gudhi padwa event was already a hit and we were thinking on the lines of having a grill party and so the planning had to begin now for the next get-together with husbands and kids.
On the way back, I was smiling to myself.
Friends make lives so easy and comforting!! Family is and will always remain the first priority for most of us here, but friends unleash the hidden talents in you, encourage you to speak your mind, accept you as you are and help you become a better person. Thanks J for introducing me to this group. I am already feeling good about being in this country now.
:-)
