Diwali: Festival of Lights India Night Indian Dance - The Overseas ...

Imagine this sceneKid’s CornerA working husband casts ajealous eye over his expatwife’s lifestyle.Imagine this scene, writes a husbandwhose identity must remain a closelyguarded secret because if his wife discoversthat he wrote this he’ll be in big trouble.As I leave the house early one Tuesdaymorning, I say to my wife, “I’ll be latehome tonight, the big report is due withthe customer this Friday and I haven’t evenmade a start on analyzing the data, nevermind writing the report and we have a twohour conference call with the East Coastaccount team starting at seven o’clock todiscuss what’s going into this report.” Thewife replies, “Well if you think your dayis bad and stressful, my tennis coach hasjust texted me to say he is held up and mytennis lesson is going to start 30 minuteslate. This means I’ll have to rush to getchanged and be very short of time to get toUB City for the girls lunch date. The trafficis very bad going into town at that time andit not fun sitting in the back of the Innovareading the paper when the traffic is sobusy and it’s the kids early finish at schoolso I’ll have to leave the lunch at threeo’clock and rush back to collect them fromthe school bus and I haven’t even told thecook what we want for dinner yet!”Actually, to be fair I exaggerate in theabove paragraph. The conference call wasonly one hour.A few midweek holidays recently gave mea glimpse into the life of an expat wife. Iliked what I saw and realized that this wasthe life I was always destined to lead – thewaking up refreshed, the leisurely breakfaston the terrace followed by a light workoutin the gym followed by being driven to atop class restaurant for lunch, before beingdriven home to spend quality time withthe children happily sitting doing theirhomework and chatting excitedly abouthow much they enjoyed school that day.Now at this point I should say that therecan be negative issues with being an expatwife. Many women have put on hold veryhigh-powered careers to accompany theirhusbands out to India. (A quick look at thepre-India careers of the OWC committeeillustrates this point beautifully). There canalso be issues of isolation and loneliness,but this is perhaps a subject for a futurearticle written by someone who is a lotmore seriously minded than I clearly am.I’m willing to risk those negatives to livethe life of an expat wife because when Ihear things like “I’m getting a little tired ofthe spa so I’m going to give it a miss thisweek”, you know someone is having justtoo good a life. So how can I achieve thislifestyle? I can see three options:Send my wife into the office in my placeand hope that no one notices. Sadly thiswill not work. My wife being far moreorganized and competent than I, thesubsequent rise in productivity would soonbe noted and we would be rumbled.Get a divorce and then marry a high-flyingcareer woman. There are some problemswith this. First the divorce part is maybenot ideal. Second it could be a hard sell tothe high-flying woman – please marry meso I can lay about your house all day andeat pizza. Third, I did marry a high-flyingcareer woman and somehow I still findmyself working!Reincarnation – come back in the next lifeas an expat wife. A few downsides with thisapproach; I’d have to die first and I cannotbe 100% sure that reincarnation actuallyworks and if it does there is a chance Icould come back as a street dog or evenworse, Wayne Rooney!So I guess I’m not going to have the chanceto find out if the expat wife lifestyle wouldbe as good as I imagine. But given a stackof video games, a fast internet connection,the complete DVD box set of the ‘ITCrowd’ and a deep fat fryer, I suspect itwould …Nisha McNealis(aged 8 when she wrotethese) shares some poetrywritten after a family tripto Ranthambore.TigerSilent as shadows,Still as the dead,In his eyes,A flash of red.He crouches low,In wait of prey,For another mealOn another day ...DeerPrancing and dancing,The deer gallops by,Feeling so lightIt could just maybe fly.Down to the river fora drink and a dip,and some fresh grass shootsperfect to nip!PeacockHandsome and proud,The Peacock walks by,King of the birds,Though he really can’t fly.His feathers are glisteningAnd spreading their light,The peacock is a lovely bird,So pretty, so bright.The Rangoli 11/2010 17