LIFE AS IT IS

These days I wonder if I have really become a shopaholic. I go to the stores and there are too many things that I want to buy, some of which I do buy and the rest I dream of buying someday. However, when I am alone at home, I wonder if I am really becoming a compulsive shopper. I have always loved to shop. In Dhaka, I used to go from one boutique to another to choose a single dress. Even looking at and feeling the fabric was a pleasant experience. A chunk of my monthly salary was spent on clothes and shoes. But I could bring with me only three of my shalwar kameezes when I decided to travel some 13,000 kms to the U.S. for higher studies. While packing, I realised that I had other more important things to carry with me to America than shalwar kameez, sari…in short, clothes. Today, when I calculate the amount of money I spent on clothes, some of which I never wore more than once, I feel guilty. The money could have been used for a better cause. What a waste! I thought that the ex...

I, who hardly ever stepped into the kitchen in Dhaka, now cook regularly here in the America. Life changes, and so do we! Many chores that a person never does or did in his or her home country become a part of everyday life in a foreign country. And, cooking is just one example. When I first stood in front of the electric stove in my one-bedroom apartment, I knew for sure that I wouldn't be able to cook the fried mixed vegetables that I was planning on cooking, even though I called my mom earlier for the recipe. I stood in the kitchen with hands on my waist. I was scared, for I thought I would end up burning my hands. I was worried, for I thought that all the vegetables and spices would go wastes - there was no way I thought I could cook something suitable for eating. In the first days of my life in the U.S., cooking simple things like bhaji and daal required long-distance phone calls to my mother. An aunt living in Florida was a saviour, who helped me adjust to this new ...