J and her friends at ballet class performed for the parents today. They've been learning for about two months now. The only discernable difference (at least to my eyes) was that the kids moved around less chaotically than they did at first. There were as many camcorders as there were parents - except two of us who had old fashioned non-digital cameras.
The other woman was the mom of the only little boy in the class. Hers was a high-end Nikon with telephoto lens and works. After the class, she gave me some pictures of J she had taken on a previous class. "She is such a pleasure to shoot. So photogenic and such a beautiful face!" gushed the photographer. "I will send you the pictures I took today as well". Thanks to ballet class, J will have a portfolio by a professional photographer.
While it was not much of a ballet or even a dance performance we did catch a glimpse of our children's personalities and inclinations. There are some fast and eager learners who if pushed may some day turn technically good to sophisticated dancers. There are those who just don't get it and can't be bothered by this whole dance thing (reminded me of my own childhood - born with two left feet). They will struggle through a few more seasons of dance lessons and then retire hurt.
And then there is a nascent star like J's buddy Kyle who is already interpreting music in her own way, using the steps she has learnt like the alphabet to create beautiful arabesques on the dance floor. Kyle of the dazzling smile, fluid grace, body moving to music like every pore is longing to be one with it. I hope her parents nourish and nurture what God has given her so bountifully.
An expat desi friend and I were discussing what it means to return to India when you have cobbled together a life in a foreign country no matter how flawed and imperfect. We have both spent over a decade outside India and have kids who were born abroad and have spent very little time back home. Returning "home" is something a lot of new immigrants like L and myself think about. We want very much for that to be an option because a full assimilation into our country of domicile is likely never going to happen. L has visited India more often than I have and has a much better pulse on what's going on there. For me the strongest drag force working against my desire to return home is my experience of life as a woman in India. I neither want to live that suffocatingly sheltered existence myself nor subject J to it. The freedom, independence and safety I have had in here in suburban America was not even something I knew I could expect to have in India. I never knew what it felt t
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