Desi View
10
INDIA IN NEW YORK FEBRUARY 14, 2014
The city that
gave wings to a
stay-at-home
mom’s dreams
LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS
NANDINI BHUCHAR
I
came to America almost 25 years ago, as a young
bride. Now being at the ‘midpoint’ of life at 50, I feel
absolutely fabulous about myself and everything
around me.
My journey began with my husband in 1989 in Flushing,
Queens…. our first home. Coming from a rather large family of four siblings to having no immediate family or close
friends in the tristate area, it took me a while to get accustomed to the loneliness of the ‘weekend’ culture in the US.
Those days, speaking over the phone to loved ones in
India was rationed to once a month due to the exorbitant
phone rates. Correspondence was mainly through letters. I
used to look forward to the ‘click’ of the mailbox and run
downstairs from our apartment in anticipation of a letter
from India.
I didn’t experience any severe ‘culture shock’ in my transition from New Delhi to New York. Several things did take
a long time to get accustomed to (not sure if I am accustomed to them yet).
One of them was being addressed by my first name by
those younger then me.
Coming from a culture where elders were always
addressed respectfully, being addressed as Nandini by
young ones made me cringe (still does).
Even though we did not have any family nearby, they were
always there for us emotionally and mentally. We visited
family as much as we could and they did the same.
Gradually we made friends nearby and the warmth of these
friendships saw us through our ups and downs in life.
These friends evolved into family.
Our two boys were born in April 1993 and October 1997.
In raising our children, we kept our minds open to positive
influences from other cultures.
In Queens, we had enrolled our son in Gymboree, a week-
ly play session for toddlers. There I met some other first
time mothers and we formed a voluntary informal playgroup with our children.
We would meet once a week in each other’s homes. Most
children in this playgroup were from Jewish and Catholic
families. During the playgroup’s weekly activities, I learnt a
lot from the other mothers, who though they were born and
brought up in the US, had similar thought processes like me.
We took the children to zoos, playgrounds, museums, circus, and book-reading sessions at libraries etc…something
which I have to say that most stay-at-home mothers from
the Indian community miss out on. I started to feel very
comfortable and really looked forward to these weekly
interactions.
Somewhere along the line we moved to the suburbs,
Ronkonkoma, Long Island.
I spent my time in doing what most stay-at-home mothers do, took my children to preschool, library, baseball and
soccer games, play dates, birthday parties, made sure
homework was done etc.
One afternoon, as I was picking up my younger son from
his preschool, I heard some of the mothers discussing that
the Internal Revenue Service was hiring seasonal workers
for the upcoming tax-filing season.
One of the mothers was applying and was encouraging
the others to do the same. I applied and was pleasantly surprised to be selected in February 2002. This was an entrylevel position.
I considered myself extremely fortunate to be selected,
even though I had been out of the workforce for 13 years
and had no prior work experience in the US.
I worked as a seasonal employee in different IRS departments for about four years. Simultaneously, I had my foreign education credentials evaluated, and began studying
part time to fulfill the educational requirements needed to
successfully apply for a professional cadre at the IRS.
My hard work and perseverance paid off. In my fifth year
as a seasonal employee, in June 2006, I was selected as an
Internal Revenue Agent. For me this was a dream come
true, and I genuinely thought at that time that this would
be my career for the rest of my working life.
While I enjoyed the content of my job and the respect
associated with the position, I soon realized that being a
Revenue Agent involved a substantial amount of travelling,
within the city.
My daily field work and commute was tiring and I was
finding it difficult to keep up with the demands of my
young family. I longed for a career where I could work closer to home and with limited travel.
I started looking for appropriate job vacancies at the federal government jobs Web site.
I worked as a Revenue Agent for about two years before
joining the Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration in March 2008 as an auditor.
Currently, I am a management and program analyst and
recently received my certified Fraud Examiner credentials
from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. I get to
work from home four days a week.
I have my dream job.
What I have learned in my journey is that in order to
move forward, besides working hard, one has to constantly
keep challenging oneself and try to get out of one’s comfort
zone.
There is no end to learning…it goes on constantly. There
is no glass ceiling. It exists only in our minds.
So go out and chase your dreams without even giving a
moment’s thought to rejection.
If you don’t think about it, it won’t