A Small Town Girl at Heart

Pune, my city in India is no small town. A city with more than 3 million population, one of the biggest IT hubs in India, is crowded. Thankfully, when I was living in Pune, about 7 years ago it was not that crazy. And my home in Pune, is still at a quiet location. So my home definitely has a small town quiet feel. After moving to US, I landed up in Atlanta, another metro with millions of people. Though the county I lived in was a rich one, the apartment complex was not. So it has all its negatives including terrible apartments and crime. There was never a dull moment with criminals on lose and tenants enjoying music at 3am and of course smell of marijuana in the hallways. The school was in downtown Atlanta and must say I hated that area. I have seen way too much crime and heard about much more and I was done with big cities. And then I moved to Tempe.

Tempe is not exactly a small town but it is smaller compared to Phoenix. Tempe has the best of both worlds, all the educational and employment opportunities (ASU main campus is in Tempe) because it is in Phoenix metro area but a t the same time, the cozy feel of small town. We were in great terms with our neighbors. We would visit each other on Christmas, people would borrow things in kitchen and just come by to say "Hello". That's what I am talking about. Small town feel.

After living in Tempe for a while it was hard for me to adjust in DC (my all time favorite city in US) during my internship. I would tell V, that every time I open the door people are on my face. Tempe completely ruined me because of big streets and quite neighborhoods. I always thought how would I do in a big city? And then something beautiful happened. We moved to Ann Arbor, another small city but rich with culture. That's like a dream come true. I have all the amenities I need and with UMICH right at the corner, all the educational opportunities are there. There is always something to do. But without the chaos and crowds. I enjoy sitting outside and just looking at the birds and rabbits and occasional visitors like ducks and raccoons (racoons are visiting us more and more and they are a kind of mess and make much more )I enjoy the walks in downtown, visiting library and sometimes just hanging out in Borders. Even some of the Borders staff knows me now. I love this. I see people walking their dogs, they would stop and say "Hello" if they see you. Neighbors will help you if you need anything. It's wonderful. I like this cozy feeling.

I am definitely a small town girl at heart. Though I have lived in a big city, I always enjoyed the quiet times at my grandma's place in Saswad and now I get to enjoy this every day. I hope I land up in another beautiful town in future and enjoy the smell of air there!

Eating Beef

I have started eating beef. Yes, I finally did it. I have yet to explore the juicy stakes but nonetheless I am eating hot dogs and mind you I am loving them. Generally, people choose to go towards vegetarianism but I might be among the few who are heading towards "maukaterianism" (great phase I heard, meaning- eating anything you get at that moment). After being in US for almost 7 years, I strictly adhered to my preference of not eating beef. Nothing about religion per se, but since I am born and brought up in India, cows were holy to me. (When I told this to an American friend, he said only Indian cows are holy. American cows are tasty :-)) Jokes apart. But since a while I have been thinking about my eating habits and wondering why I had this mental block about beef and will it mean something if I eat it?

My family is not a vegetarian family. I ate meat since I was born. But of course, being in India meat was fish and chicken and occasionally mutton. I remember eating pork dogs once though. My mother started eating meat after she got married. She has a great attitude about it. She always says "I will try everything and if I don't like it, I won't eat it." I think this definitely influenced me when it came to trying different meats in US. But still I was particular about not eating beef. I had mistakenly had beef in chili since I had no clue what chili was. But knowingly I never ate it.

After thinking about it for a long time, I realized that I am unnecessarily restricting myself thinking that eating beef is bad. (It could be for health reasons, but my dilemma has been a moral one.) I eat pork and love then why not beef? It has nothing to do with God. I know that God doesn't care about what I eat. But still the cultural impact was so strong that at times I would urge V not to eat it. Now, I find that hilarious.

Even after enjoying pork and beef sausages I won't be eating it all the time. My diet still contains vegetables, fruits and white meat. But I want to expand my choices. Since I saw Julie and Julia, I wanted to eat Beef Bourguigno , Julia Child's Beef Bourguigno! Perhaps this prompted me to rethink about my "not eating beef mentality". As a food lover, I feel I should be open to all cuisines and foods to make my life richer and interesting.

So now since all you know about my new adventure, any suggestions for great first stake?