I have to say that I have been very blessed to have some very good friends around me all these years. I would not have done without them at all!!

Last year another fellow Manipuri from New Jersey became friends with me after she read my articles in the e-pao!! Full credit goes to the e-pao team for this !!

We enjoyed talking about anything from A to Z. It was so much fun because we could giggle and laugh as we wanted to without any hindrance!! She sent my son a roundtrip flight ticket as his birthday gift, to visit her for the Thanksgiving holiday last year!

What a big hearted lady!! I can't thank her enough!! She was a devout Sai Baba devotee and it was amazing to see her full faith in him!! Its wonderful to be knowing her as I could learn something from her too. Her husband is a very gentle and sweet man!! They both are quite the opposites!!

Well, they took us to an Indian resaturant to eat. The food was very good there and my son was over excited even to eat. The next day she took us around to the beach and other places. She cooked all kinds of yummy dishes and we enjoyed so much of that time being with her there. She did her utmost best to make us feel at home.

She is a very good homemaker and I really admire her for keeping her place so clean and good!! Gosh! I never thought I'd meet such good fellow Manipuris here in the states!! I had the perceptions of them being snobbish and looking down on us who were not upto the societal standards ..professionally and personally!! But hey! I found a very good friend in her and I am very thankful to her!!

During our stay at her place, I was more concerned about my son barging into her Pooja (worship) room or either accidentally breaking any kind of decorative glass pieces because my son is very active. He was itching to go into that pooja room and explore everything!!

I had to rein him in with a portable DVD player to let him watch animated movies instead or else it would be taken away!! Well, that was the deal and agreement I made with my 5 year old son!! He was very happy to play with her in the sand and collect sea shells as souvenirs!! He held onto those for dear life!! He was very sad when we came back to Tulsa. I had a hard time with him because he had grown fond of them in such a short time!

And also I had another chance to make a good Manipuri friend from Delhi. She sure is a firebrand and nonconformist type!! We have been exchanging gifts, ideas and what not!! It sure does help a lot to have friends and be able to share one's sorrows or happiness!! This friend has been a wall of rock for me all these months!! I could cry or tell her anything without any expectations in return!!

I must also mention a hardworking young Manipuri guy from OKC who got to meet us here after reading my articles. Hey!!e-pao team, punsiyuko!! (long live). My circle of friends are increasing ,thanks to them!!

Last week I visited a young Manipuri couple (Johnson and Gloria) in Dallas(Texas) who had invited me there. My goodness!! This couple is the most down-to-earth people I have ever met here among our community! I was blown away by their warmth and hospitality and no pretenses at all!!

Truly they are the face of the ever changing and emerging new generation of educated, well grounded & informed and hard working Manipuris settled abroad!! My salute goes to them!! They made me feel so welcome in their home, I could not believe it!

Back home, I'd be very conscious of my family and social status because our people have a tendency to dwell on that point!! Anyway, it was great fun being with them and my son had a blast trying to say some Manipuri words and addressing them as Kaka Johnson and aunty Gloria.

But he whispered in my ear and asked me out of curiousity as to why he had to address them as such!! I explained to him that it was to show respect!! I don't know if he could grasp the idea or not, as no one here really does that! I will try my best to get him connected with our culture and heritage!!

Gloria is a very good cook and boy!! oh! boy!!she did cook up a storm of yummy dishes. She made meat pickles and packed some for me to take home!! We ate so much nga-thongba(fish) and I made Samosas for them too. We had a good time with them.

Gloria played a Salman Khan song for him and thats it!! She knew he was a fan of his. He was so engrossed in watching that video song that he could not even hear any one call out to him!!

Johnson took him to play tennis with him and goodness gracious!! He came back wanting to wear a muscle T-shirt just like Kaka Johnson!!! This couple made my son so happy that he wanted to go back ASAP!! May their tribe increase!!

On my drive back home, a teenaged driver from nowhwere sideswiped my front side of the car. I said to myself..what next?? I had to wait till the Texas police completed their report. Well, thank god, no one was hurt nor any serious damages to the vehicle!! I reached home in about 5 hours. We were very exhausted and tired!! My son was already missing them so much!!

It was a very fruitful visit!!