A Night at the Clubhouse..

Last night was a different experience for me.It was the first time i hung out with Americans.Until now my company on weekends would only be Aneesh,Akhil,Noopur and Ish so i felt at home with my own folks.It was a new kinda experience talking to people with such diverse and most imperatively interesting backgrounds.Talking of backgrounds i am very familiar with the kind of messed up families exist and issues that could only be seen or heard through television back in India but trust me its overwhelming when you hear those stories from the horse's mouth itself!

I like to call myself a very broad minded individual who respects all kind of people without being judgemental about their past or present.I did the same while hearing the life story(in brief) of a girl i met last night.She is a pleasant Dominican republic girl who is new to our company and from what i understood she has rational thoughts and is like what a 27 yr old responsible girl should be.Our initial confab gradually turned into a heart to heart exchange of emotions that we women go through.I had heard rumours about her that she is a gay woman(I would rather not call her lesbian or dyke because i feel those words are degrading) but that
never really was a reason i would feel uncomfortable around her.I was wondering that when she would unveil that part of her life.She started out by telling me why she moved from New York city(Manhattan)to Haverhill( a small ugly town in Massachusetts) and as she was narrating her story i realized that this girl had gone through a great deal.She moved here because her half sister asked her help to get back on from her messed up life,she had about 20 half sister and brother which indicates what a player her father is! She has a nine year old daughter called Destiny(she named her this because she was her destiny) whom she had when she was just eighteen.She had gone through a divorce at the age of twenty.She was in love with a woman for four years which she still thinks she does.And last but not the least she is in a live-in relationship with a woman,in which she is suffocated and wants space.By the end of it all i was appalled,i had no words and nothing to preach or advice because i have always been this Agony aunt of sorts who had most viable solutions to the most labyrinth of situations.But here i found myself in a unique state leaving me speechless.

The party ended and we came back home tired only waiting to crash on the bed but my mind still contemplating the contrasting cultures of the two countries and how people and their lives differ from each other.Somewhere having pity at people like her who have not seen what parental care and love means.It made me rethink how much i should respect the fact that i have parents who gave me the best they could.I hold immense regard for her for being strong all this while.She fell and stood up again only to emerge as a stronger individual and a great mother.