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American Desi Citizen! Birjis Adeni Rashed Birjis Adeni Rashed originally from Hyderabad, India, now lives in Austin, TX, USA. She has a MBA, majoring in Marketing and has been a student of English Literature, Politics and History. She says, "Creativity, writing and 'I' have always stayed connected, as Copywriter, Technical Writer, Content Writer, Web designer and Freelance Writer." A great mom, wonderful wife, good friend and a charming human being, Birjis is passionate about writing, reading, interior designing, cooking and traveling! Her motto- "Tomorrow is another day!"

Four years ago I wrote an article called Independence Day Abroad about our celebrations of the Indian Independence Day at Dallas, Texas, USA. Ironically I am following it up this year with “American Desi Citizen” about my July 4th celebrations in Austin, TX. The American Independence day was celebrated with equal fervor as we did the Indian independence days, if not more!

Parade - Monday, July 4, 2005

We got up early even on the long weekend, because we wanted to join the parade organized in our neighborhood. Before we left for the parade we put up our American flag in front of the house, not to be left out as unpatriotic! We dressed up in patriotic colors of reds and blues and decorated our kid’s stroller with red white and blue duppattas, while my older one skated with a small flag in hand. The parade started at 9.00 AM sharp with people in flag colored clothes, hats, jewelry, hair accessories, socks and anything visual. The parade had children in decorated wagons, cycles, scooters, skates, small Barbie cars, strollers, motorized scooters, and parents accompanying them all, on feet with flags and balloons. Leading the parade was a heavily decorated small motorized truck with a boom box playing the “Star Spangled Banner”, the national anthem of United States. We walked together as Americans, celebrating the occasion with our friends and neighbors. The parade culminated in the park where the children were offered snow cones in blues and reds, and jumped on the moon walk and hung out with firemen.

Flag Hoisted Outside My House

Half a day was gone; we still had to prepare for the evenings celebrations. It was the barbequing weekend; every one you know is barbequing this day! We too were having a potluck barbeque this evening with friends and neighbors. Our friends who entered from the front door with the flag hoisted near it hailed out “Happy Independence day”!

We had a international smorgasbord for dinner. Starting with Tex-Mex salsa and chips, Italian mozzarella and tomatoes as appetizers, we moved on to Tandoori chicken, lamb kabobs, hot dogs and corn on the cob Indian style with lemon and red pepper. The rest of the menu had Indian naan, Mediterranean tahini dip – a sesame seed paste, a Greek salad, trilogy of pickled jalapeño, pepperonchinis and Serrano peppers; all eaten on patriotic dinnerware. Laddus as dessert was the finale, and unfortunately the strawberry, blue berry and whipped cream dessert which I had got recipes of got skipped due to lack of time.

Like everyone here, we have enjoyed the great fire works displays each year since we arrived in the US. At times we have traveled large distances and made great efforts to watch the best one like going to D.C from NJ and watching it from the tallest building in NYC. But paradoxically today when we have spent the whole day celebrating July 4th, we just ended up watching the fireworks on television and the few live crackers our neighbors burst despite the neighborhood fireworks ban.

Lots of paradoxes but that’s what it is, if you are an ADC- American Desi Citizen!

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