When driving back from the pumpkin patch to Dib's house, Raj suddenly asked me, "If I decide to go with the startup with P, we will need to live in India for a few years, do you think we can do that?" "Both our families? Getting two places next to each other? Hell ya!"
Raj has been testing out everything with everyone and trying to find what he really has the passion to work on, as well as most likely to succeed, in various startups or startup ideas. P's wife has always been as close as a sister to me, I can't wait for them to come back to the bay area next month. If we two families need to go to India to live for a few years, lol, what an adventure! We two Chinese girls are gonna have so much fun there, doing Goddesses know what....
What can I say, for all of Raj's career decisions, I gave the green light. I treat him like my children who need the freedom to grow into their wholeness and find their own path. Men are still children, they don't adapt they don't bend they don't want to be caged. Women also don't want to be caged but women adapt and women bend.
If one day going back to India to build the most promising startup among the million of them from Raj's startup list becomes inevitable, surely I wouldn't be the one to block the opportunity, and most probably I am gonna have one of the most important adventures of my lifetime.
The resolute will sets it all in motion, and the other matters will naturally fall into place. Academically my children are gonna surpass all of their peers when or if they come back; music they hence will start classical Indian music training, Indian traditional dance too, for Aditi; sports maybe we can find personal trainers for the things they are most passionate about, horse riding too, most probably. My work? The only thing is I won't meet my prof in person regularly. But even today my team is all over the world, and no one except my prof is physically reachable. What about Leena Noah Dib and S? Well, we will come back one day.
So funny that Raj's question came at the same time as the discussion of Roe V Wade resurfaced after talking to K today. I have always regarded them as Raj's side of friends, but I did try to connect with K like a close friend with sisterhood. That's what I do usually, with no distinction to all the people I encounter. I never hesitate to share my stories and my thoughts on various issues. People who feel strongly about it will try to build that connection with me, and people who feel nothing or prejudice won't give a dame. Simple as 1+1. I guess for us we have just been too busy to hang out, plus our kids don't naturally attract to each other.
K has been seeing what I post on social media, so she knows exactly where I stand. Today she told me that she was "completely blown off by what's happening in America". She was "very disappointed to see such few women stand up to fight for their own rights before they can still openly fight for them". "Even Iranian women are much braver". Now they are seriously "considering moving to Canada and asked their brother to stay put in Canada and never ever think about moving to America". There was a tipping point for her, her daughter had this BFF boy from 3 - 4 years ago. The two always enjoyed each other's company and they kept asking for playdates with each other. Then one day, this boy was in K's house, like any normal Indian, we have Goddesses and Gods' idols in the house somewhere. "Mine are in the room upstairs, not like on his face or something". So when this boy went to the upstairs room and saw those Goddesses and Gods' idols, he told K's daughter, "there are all Fake gods, there is only one true god in the world". This boy and his family are strict churchgoers.
Not saying all strict/regular churchgoers are fallen into the cult mentality and forgotten how to live, but my alarm is forever hot for such a situation. "I have to say you are better than me, I don't put in any effort in developing intimate relationships with people like that. My ears are always standing when people talk about such things. Well, Raj is gonna scold me for being 'not open', but what can I say, mommy is extremely tired, she has no energy to put herself in misery. I have to admit, this is all new, Roe V Wade changed everything for me. I am now too scared and too disheartened to try, my bars are risen up much higher... You know Hinduism was not even a concept until the last few hundred years after the British had to put it into the category of 'religion' so they could understand themselves. Well, not saying they did understand it well like decent human beings. Whatever the Bharat people have been doing for 5000-6000 years, is just a way of life, a way to accept and respect the unknown. And when the spiritual pursuit is largely regarded as unknown, anything could thrive in the land of India. Including all of those young religions that later were brought upon to brainwash people, like Islam and Christianity..."
"Ya, exactly, India allowed all religions to settle and flourish. We never felt the need to exclude and eliminate, never the need to preach and convert. Precisely because we worship whatever we want, millions of Gods and Goddesses, Gurus and Saints to choose from. Everyone has the freedom to believe in whatever or whoever they want. And create your own religion like Jainism, Buddism, Sikhism etc!"
"Right! People are simply ignorant. What can I say, most people in your and my life are as ignorant as fuck, that's why most human beings can be easily brainwashed into oblivion. For me, being brainwashed by my dictators who are the one and only male Gods like Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping, or the Kim Jun-il family, has absolutely no different from being brainwashed by their one and only male Gods. Whoever believes in that 'Absolute' shit, could be considered being brainwashed. And guess what, for all of the ancient religions, Hindu, Greek, Egyptian, Mayan, Assyrian, Persian, and Chinese too, before the Qin dynasty... they had powerful Goddesses, all of them. Why? Because women are naturally powerful, can men carry a baby inside of them and push that thing out of their vaginas? No need to mention bringing up offspring the way mothers do, to protect, nurture, and guard. Women and men were equally powerful and important at the beginning of human societies, both held up equally essential social positions. In some societies, women were more dominant too. But later as life was getting materialized and more comfortable, women got the luxury to stay at home, and work was more divided, therefore gradually men got much more power since they work outside. So then those young religions came up, with solely the one and only male God getting to be written into their made-up stories, with no sighting of equally powerful women. Women since were written to be 'secondary', 'attachment', or 'property'. But Hinduism or this way of life we are following embodies one of the original human quests for 'who we are, where we come from and where we are going', embodies the original encounters humans had when they saw the magical nature and the true wild. In this universe, Nothing is Absolute, and our way of living, I would say is the only way of living and thinking because it's the only surviving ancient religion, that has the capacity to host this truth. Not saying people in different religions, especially monotheism won't believe that Nothing is Absolute, depends on how much they allow themselves to be brainwashed actually. It varies case by case, but for me, uh uh, mommy is too exhausted."
Now my mind has been taken back to the "escape plan" that Roe V Wade brought upon. India for a few years, sure, why not! But what I really dream about, is Taiwan. Only if there is no fucking CCP or dictator who aims their nukes and missiles on that magical island. I tell everyone, "You know what, now I think about it, Chinese culture had so much influence from India and the Hindu way of living. When I was young and still following my grandma to our local temples, we had all kinds of Gods and Goddesses worshipped in the temples - God of the oven, Goddess of Earth, God of the ocean, Goddess of compassion, God of fortune etc etc. That imprinted diversity and tolerance deeply into Chinese culture, Buddism which came from India. So when preserved Chinese culture met with democracy, like in Taiwan, they have the highest quality of life in Asia, also in the world. The best democracy, the best equality, the best social welfare, everything. Look at their female president that truly loved and respected by the nation. Can America achieve that, no freaking way, not for the foreseeable future. Because the flower bed of European settlers' America is conservativism from monotheism, whilst the flower bed of Taiwan is the openness of Chinese culture that had a strong connection to the spiritually free India. If America is not able to hold that fortress of religious freedom, diversity and tolerance as set by the constitution, it won't fundamentally be a free and modern nation anymore. As simple as 1+1".
