The first year was as they say all wine & roses...., but in my case, it was more adjustment more than anything.
After our whirlwind wedding was over, it was time for me to settle down in a whole new country, people (family), culture, food, surrounding and of course my husband.
Firstly it was weird for me to share my bed with someone else. It didn't feel comfortable at all! I was used to having the bed all to myself, now there was hubby next me & most of the time coming into my space. It was hard fighting for space in the middle of the night! There was a few instances where I even fell off the bed (sigh!)!! Yeah, I have fallen off my bed & my cutesy hubby would only sit there & laugh at me on the floor. The poor soul also felt quite helpless seeing me on the floor, so to lighten the moment, he would always burst out laughing & I would also rub my sleepy eyes & laugh along with him...
Then there was the problem of adjusting to the new family and people around you. I was lucky to adjust quite well because I have very loving and caring in-laws or mummy & daddy as I call them. They are more like parents to me since I've lost both my parents. Mum always says she treats me more like her daughter & not her daughter-in-law.
She's a really wonderful mother in all ways. She's the one who's cared, loved & nurtured my hubby so much that he's also a wonderful & loving person just like she is. I remember that when I first came here, my clothes were not very appropriate for this country.
As you may know, we are not at all conservative in Singapore. And as Singapore is a very hot & humid country, most of us walk around in shorts & t-shirts. We also don't think twice about wearing short tight skirts or anything for that matter, nobody bothers about what you wear & people don't pass rude comments or ogle at you!
Mum would on the quiet make pretty Indian clothes for me just to help me blend in. After I had got my wedding gown made at the tailor's he had my measurements, so mum used to buy pretty material & get suits stitched for me.
Also, in those initial days, I was not working & hubby's salary was quite low, barely enough to sustain both of us & I had to curb all my spending & shopping. Looking back, those were really fun days.
We did not have the car then & we used to get around on hubby's "put-put" 3-wheeler. It was specially designed for the handicapped and was presented to hubby by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation for which he was even chosen to give a thank you speech on behalf of all the handicapped people who received their three-wheelers on that day. He proudly spoke at the President's house on 18.08.1994 (yes another 18!). "Put-put had a seat for 2 just behind the driver & that's where mum & me used to squeeze! It had a roof on the top which would "try" to keep us dry in the rains but it never really worked as we would always be drenched by the rains. But I used to love riding at the back with my hubby.
Hubby used to bring me out for a short ride daily in the evenings. He knew that I would be bored sitting at home the whole day & he would make every effort even though he would be totally tired after work. We would roam around in our unique looking bike all over Chandigarh and I remember that everytime we would end up in Sector 17 for an ice cream, all the street kids would run after us!
Then, there was this once when my most adventurous hubby took me for a drive all the way to Ambala which is about 100km away from Chandigarh on his 3-wheeler. I was still very new to this place and I didn't know anything about the dangers involved. Being the thrill seeker that I am, I very readily agreed to his proposal. All I wanted was a long drive with my hubby on a nice Sunday afternoon. Little did I realise that it would have been so dangerous had anything happened to the bike along the way! Where would we look for a mechanic? This is not an ordinary bike that most mechanics can handle, it was a little different in configuration also.
Luckily for us, God was with us and nothing happened along the way & we reached home safely. It was only after reaching home did I happily announce to mum that we had just come back from Ambala did we both get a good dressing down!!! She was sooooooo angry with Bunny!! She kept scolding him in Hindi (I don't know what was being said!). She then told me the dangers of venturing out all alone especially without telling anybody at home where we are. I understood and never ever dared anything like that ever again.
Bunny bought a car just 3 days after I arrived in India, but was not able to drive it. I remember that in the initial days, we used to depend highly on drivers to bring us around. Also, some of the drivers were never punctual. I remember on our first Christmas day together, the driver was supposed to come to our place and pick us up at 10am, but only reached at 1pm!!! I was fuming mad!! I was literally in tears by the time we had to leave. I just hate it when people cannot keep up to their commitments. I'm also a very punctual person, but over here, people tend to be very relaxed and are not in the least bothered about their commitments.
Finally, Bunny found a mechanic in Delhi who could convert the car into a hand controlled one for him to drive using his hands. I remember the night before the car was due back after the hand-controlled device was fixed, Bunny had such a sleepless night as he was so excited about being able to finally drive a car!
When morning came & the driver delivered the car, Bunny was just itching to take it out. I was extra cautious & protective over him taking the car out on the road, I was also the first person who sat next to him when he took his first round in the car around our colony. On the second round around the colony, he forced mum to get in the car also, although she was scared! She finally relented and got in the car & Bunny took her around so smoothly although it was only his 1st day behind the wheels.
After 1 week, he was so confident that he was picking me up from work!! It sometimes amazes me how fast he took to the wheels of the car after just one week. He's now a perfect driver. Nobody can ever say that a handicap person is driving the car. In that old car (Maruti 800), we have gone up & down to Delhi about 4 times with Bunny behind the wheels.
Another difficult adjustment for me was the food in India. The very first week I was in India, I was quite sick! I guess I was not used to the heavy masala they use in their cooking here, while the food in Singapore is still quite mild & bland. I still don't really like the food here very much. I really miss all my Singaporean food like Chicken Rice, Laksa, Duck Rice, Char Kway Teow, etc. In fact, mum has had to change her style of cooking a little just to accommodate my taste buds. I still miss eating pork & sea food very much. We don't get fish & seafood here, even if we do, it's not very fresh & I don't like the taste of stale fish or prawns!
Our first year of lovey, lovey flew by very fast in the blink of an eye. I'd enjoyed every moment of it and I really miss "put-put", but had loads of nice rides in Bunjack (our Maruti 800)!
After our whirlwind wedding was over, it was time for me to settle down in a whole new country, people (family), culture, food, surrounding and of course my husband.
Firstly it was weird for me to share my bed with someone else. It didn't feel comfortable at all! I was used to having the bed all to myself, now there was hubby next me & most of the time coming into my space. It was hard fighting for space in the middle of the night! There was a few instances where I even fell off the bed (sigh!)!! Yeah, I have fallen off my bed & my cutesy hubby would only sit there & laugh at me on the floor. The poor soul also felt quite helpless seeing me on the floor, so to lighten the moment, he would always burst out laughing & I would also rub my sleepy eyes & laugh along with him...
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| Enjoying Our First Few Months Together... |
She's a really wonderful mother in all ways. She's the one who's cared, loved & nurtured my hubby so much that he's also a wonderful & loving person just like she is. I remember that when I first came here, my clothes were not very appropriate for this country.
As you may know, we are not at all conservative in Singapore. And as Singapore is a very hot & humid country, most of us walk around in shorts & t-shirts. We also don't think twice about wearing short tight skirts or anything for that matter, nobody bothers about what you wear & people don't pass rude comments or ogle at you!
Mum would on the quiet make pretty Indian clothes for me just to help me blend in. After I had got my wedding gown made at the tailor's he had my measurements, so mum used to buy pretty material & get suits stitched for me.
Also, in those initial days, I was not working & hubby's salary was quite low, barely enough to sustain both of us & I had to curb all my spending & shopping. Looking back, those were really fun days.
We did not have the car then & we used to get around on hubby's "put-put" 3-wheeler. It was specially designed for the handicapped and was presented to hubby by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation for which he was even chosen to give a thank you speech on behalf of all the handicapped people who received their three-wheelers on that day. He proudly spoke at the President's house on 18.08.1994 (yes another 18!). "Put-put had a seat for 2 just behind the driver & that's where mum & me used to squeeze! It had a roof on the top which would "try" to keep us dry in the rains but it never really worked as we would always be drenched by the rains. But I used to love riding at the back with my hubby.
Hubby used to bring me out for a short ride daily in the evenings. He knew that I would be bored sitting at home the whole day & he would make every effort even though he would be totally tired after work. We would roam around in our unique looking bike all over Chandigarh and I remember that everytime we would end up in Sector 17 for an ice cream, all the street kids would run after us!
Then, there was this once when my most adventurous hubby took me for a drive all the way to Ambala which is about 100km away from Chandigarh on his 3-wheeler. I was still very new to this place and I didn't know anything about the dangers involved. Being the thrill seeker that I am, I very readily agreed to his proposal. All I wanted was a long drive with my hubby on a nice Sunday afternoon. Little did I realise that it would have been so dangerous had anything happened to the bike along the way! Where would we look for a mechanic? This is not an ordinary bike that most mechanics can handle, it was a little different in configuration also.
Luckily for us, God was with us and nothing happened along the way & we reached home safely. It was only after reaching home did I happily announce to mum that we had just come back from Ambala did we both get a good dressing down!!! She was sooooooo angry with Bunny!! She kept scolding him in Hindi (I don't know what was being said!). She then told me the dangers of venturing out all alone especially without telling anybody at home where we are. I understood and never ever dared anything like that ever again.
Bunny bought a car just 3 days after I arrived in India, but was not able to drive it. I remember that in the initial days, we used to depend highly on drivers to bring us around. Also, some of the drivers were never punctual. I remember on our first Christmas day together, the driver was supposed to come to our place and pick us up at 10am, but only reached at 1pm!!! I was fuming mad!! I was literally in tears by the time we had to leave. I just hate it when people cannot keep up to their commitments. I'm also a very punctual person, but over here, people tend to be very relaxed and are not in the least bothered about their commitments.
Finally, Bunny found a mechanic in Delhi who could convert the car into a hand controlled one for him to drive using his hands. I remember the night before the car was due back after the hand-controlled device was fixed, Bunny had such a sleepless night as he was so excited about being able to finally drive a car!
When morning came & the driver delivered the car, Bunny was just itching to take it out. I was extra cautious & protective over him taking the car out on the road, I was also the first person who sat next to him when he took his first round in the car around our colony. On the second round around the colony, he forced mum to get in the car also, although she was scared! She finally relented and got in the car & Bunny took her around so smoothly although it was only his 1st day behind the wheels.
After 1 week, he was so confident that he was picking me up from work!! It sometimes amazes me how fast he took to the wheels of the car after just one week. He's now a perfect driver. Nobody can ever say that a handicap person is driving the car. In that old car (Maruti 800), we have gone up & down to Delhi about 4 times with Bunny behind the wheels.
Another difficult adjustment for me was the food in India. The very first week I was in India, I was quite sick! I guess I was not used to the heavy masala they use in their cooking here, while the food in Singapore is still quite mild & bland. I still don't really like the food here very much. I really miss all my Singaporean food like Chicken Rice, Laksa, Duck Rice, Char Kway Teow, etc. In fact, mum has had to change her style of cooking a little just to accommodate my taste buds. I still miss eating pork & sea food very much. We don't get fish & seafood here, even if we do, it's not very fresh & I don't like the taste of stale fish or prawns!
Our first year of lovey, lovey flew by very fast in the blink of an eye. I'd enjoyed every moment of it and I really miss "put-put", but had loads of nice rides in Bunjack (our Maruti 800)!
Hi Dipin, of course I know u r Anna's husband, the two of us keep talking about our dear husband's all the time....
ReplyDeleteYes, I know the 2 of u r also like us in many ways.
U know what?? We shld actually plan an outing soon & finally let the husbands meet. Let me know when & where & u can also see the car.