Spring Awakening : Published in The Scarsdale Inquirer April 24th, 2015

The last anyone had seen the TV remote was a weekend in early January when friends of ours came visiting, and their son was toying with it. I was pretty certain the child had not taken it with him; it would have been extremely embarrassing to ask his parents about the missing object! I hunted for the remote everywhere - under the couches, between bedsheets, in the kitchen shelves and the laundry basket, but it was nowhere to be found. 

Until the snow began to melt.Then I found the remote sitting quietly in the backyard, buried under all that snow for three months! I also found socks and my son’s soccer ball, and my favorite coffee mug that I must have forgotten outside. And with that discovery, spring finally arrived for me! 

I love the four seasons that Scarsdale has. In each of these, Scarsdale transforms itself -  a white wonderland with snow and fairy lights in the winter; lush, wholesome and restful in the summer, and supremely radiant and crisp in autumn. But it is in spring when Scarsdale  repairs and renews itself. The sidewalks are clear of snow and ready to be walked on again, potholes are filled in and landscaping vans are parked everywhere. One can hear the birds chirping and see the bugs start to creep out of the woodwork. The bare trees sprout the first tentative buds. The days are longer, the temperatures kinder, the wind less bitter, and the sun shines with a little more cheer. The window displays on the village shops are bright and happy as well! 

The  Scarsdale seasons are a far cry from the ones in my my erstwhile home. Wikipedia may define them differently, but in Mumbai India, the four ‘seasons’ are as follows - hot and humid, monsoons, not so hot and humid, and moderately hot; the temperatures range from 70 degrees to 90 degrees fahrenheit. I love the monsoons in Mumbai - for three months, it rains almost non-stop; it causes flooding and water-logging, traffic jams and no school days, but Mumbai is at her prettiest and lushest at this time! There is no real need to change one’s wardrobe or house decorations - one can wear shorts and a t-shirt almost all year round, and when it gets a tad cold (at 70 degrees),  out come full sleeved t-shirts, jeans and even boots! Houses get a thorough deep-clean during Diwali, one of the major festivals in India; festivals are the times we decorate our homes with flowers and lights. In comparison, the way Scarsdale, its houses and people change their outward appearance with every changing season delights me! 

It does seem like Scarsdale has woken up from its long slumber and is springing back to life. Right now, the local markets are full of spring time flowers like pansies, hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, as well as herbs and vegetables that one can plant. The heavenly smells of pumpkin, cinnamon and apple spiced fragrances have made way for fresher smells of the sea and cotton candy; fruity cocktails and passionfruit drinks get preference over pumpkin spiced and gingerbread lattes. Heavy coats and boots have made way for lighter, vibrant colored sweatshirts and tops;  the warmer nail colors of maroon, deep blues and purples are being replaced with understated brights and pale pastels. The roads are more crowded - there are convertibles, children on bikes, walkers and runners. The fields are buzzing again with soccer, lacrosse and baseball teams gearing up for games. I may be wrong, but I think people are smiling a lot more as well;  perhaps because the wind is no longer bitter, one does not need caps and scarves and can actually pay attention to others! 

Soon, there will be complaints of pollen related allergies and long spells of rain. The crickets, chirping in earnest will compete with the noise of the lawnmowers! Soon, we will also moan that the sun is too strong, and wish for some respite from the heat. 

But for now, Spring is finally here. After months, I can finally open the windows again, and let  cool air come into the house without being frozen. I can forget the winter blues and soak in the Vitamin D. Till the trees get all their leaves back, I can peep into my neighbor’s backyards, salivate at the smell of their barbecues and hope for a piece of the meat! It is time to get a new haircut, donate old clothes and get new ones, get dirt under my fingernails by planting my herb garden, sit outside at one of the village cafe’s for a cup of coffee, decorate my house with daffodils and tulips, try cooking and eating fiddleheads, watch bumblebees in my garden, see the trees bud and get their leafy cover, and to get caught in a spring shower! 

And here is a recipe for a spring pie, courtesy Paul F Kortepeter - Enjoy it! 

“Would you like some warm Spring pie? 

Then, take a cup of clear blue sky. 

Stir in buzzes from a bee, 

Add the laughter of a tree. 

A dash of sunlight should suffice 

To give the dew a hint of spice. 

Mix with berries, plump and sweet. 

Top with fluffy clouds, and eat!”

The Society of Unknown Friends; published in The Scarsdale Inquirer - Friday the 13th,2015

In my decade long stay in Mumbai I was privileged to be part of many groups - I had my college and MBA school buddies, work colleagues, school moms, gym buddies and book club members. I led an active social life, and for the past few years had not felt the need to actively seek new friends.

When I moved to Scarsdale, I knew no one and did not know how to begin to make friends. As a fresh off the boat expat to the country, I did not want to commit social faux pas by saying irrelevant or out-of-context things either. In India, if you asked me how I was  doing, I would take it quite literally. So I might say that I had a headache that was killing me, or that I went grocery shopping and the price of onions was appallingly high! I didn’t know much but I did know that I could definitely not do that here in the US - I should only say ‘Fine, Thanks, and you?’

I was alone, but not lonely because I was busy working on my novel. I attended the PTA  breakfast mornings, said hello to some mothers and exchanged a few numbers. And I was on the web quite often, checking details of things I was writing about, when one day on my Facebook page, I happened to notice ‘suggested groups around you’. This listed some groups in Westchester. There was a ‘Westchester Community’, ‘Eastchester Moms’ , a postal code group and a ‘Scarsdale Moms’ group. I sent a request to this last one to join the group.

They say all good things come by serendipity. I don’t remember what I expected from the group, because the ‘Scarsdale Moms’ group turned out to be so different from anything I had imagined it to be.

With more than 1600 members, all of them women, the status updates beat Angie’s List or any other. Members post requests for almost anything and others graciously share their information. New to Scarsdale, I figured the restaurants for romantic dinners, birthday parties, even good Mexican and Italian food. I got names of reliable plumbers, handymen, housekeepers, cleaners and airport drops. Where to go for the best massages, manicures , eyebrows, and hair color and what dentist to avoid because he has a bad case of halitosis? Was I paying the right price for a service like snow shoveling, SAT prep classes and personal training at a gym? What were the best places for students to learn driving and does a particular chiropractor live up to his reputation? I also picked up a recipe for broccolini, the names of people who deliver home cooked meals (including Indian food), even places of worship!

One thing leads to another, and an enterprising member of the Scarsdale Moms group started the ‘Gentle Scarsdale Satire’ - a group for easygoing individuals who aren't afraid to laugh at themselves and at Scarsdale. This group puts a smile on my face every morning. With incredible wit, members gently skewer things they see around them. Have residents been kidnapped by Martians because their Christmas lights still shine bright and what kind of masochistic behavior might you see at a high intensity gym class? Laugh-out-loud Scarsdale specific lyrics set to the tune of Beyonce’s ‘All the Single Ladies‘ , the town’s obsession with salads, parking in the town square, snow days, early dismissals, even potholes get honorary mentions here. As does the best loved voice in Scarsdale !!

Do I know any of the mothers on these groups? I know some names, but I have no idea who these women are! I don’t know if their children are friends with mine, if we are in the same yoga class, if I cut one of them off at the traffic light,  or if they might be seated next to me at the Salzburg Patisserie.

These groups make Scarsdale my home. Online groups are criticized for their impersonal, transient nature and their ephemeral quality. Yet when you move into an unfamiliar environment where the social dynamic is different from the one you are used to, such groups are lifesavers. In Mumbai I knew the lay of the land like only a local can know - which place has the best home delivery, what movie theatre has the best samosas and how to dress for someone’s funeral - these are not details one finds in tourist books or even folders that moving companies give you to help you settle into a new place. Gathering all that data involves months, nay years of painstaking experiences! In these FB groups, there is always someone who has done the research and I don’t have to spend a lifetime re-inventing the wheel.

Online groups are not places to bare your soul; I do not share anything personal on the groups, yet I get lots of comfort, laughs and happiness from their chatter. The Society of Unknown Friends is a great one to be part of and who knows, one day we might all meet up for drinks, and become ‘known’ friends!!