So it begins

Raising children is hard work. Of course there is the physical stress - the diapers, the homeworks, the endless picking up of toys, the aches and pains of a post child-birth body. But there are things even more profound that boggle the mind. After all, I am shaping lives here, and in an environment so different from what I grew up in, on the other side of the planet. It is all very alien- the schools, the society, the neighborhoods, the values. The challenges for an immigrant are unique and the parenting books don't provide all the answers. My mind, ideas and thoughts, straddle a few oceans, literally. I look at people like V.S.Naipaul, a great writer no doubt but so full of disdain for his roots, and hope my children don't think like that. How do I grow human beings whose roots are firmly planted, and yet they can flourish in my adopted country? And so my dilemmas, and those of many more like me, begin.