The moment I stepped off the plane, the heat welcomed me. Home... at last... after such a long time (8 months, to be precise).
Found a prepaid taxi booth and set out for home. Familiar sights and sounds greeted me all around. Magenta and yellow mini buses, blue and yellow buses, yellow cabs (Come to think of it, yellow seems to be quite a popular colour there)… Cloudy, sky... Humidity... Warm weather… Sweat trickling down my neck… Bengali signs and movie posters everywhere. Aah! My city… my home…
Reached
Then I nicely ran toward home. I had gone up 2 flights of stairs before I realized something was missing. I ran down, panic stricken, to see the Taxi driver patiently waiting near the gate with my luggage, evidently quite amused..
Daddy met me halfway up and hugged me. Then I went inside and Mommy got the jhatka of her life. She screamed, laughed and hugged me so tight. “Tu kahaan se aa gayi?” She thought Daddy had known all along. So I finally managed to surprise my folks. Muhahahaha! (I had tried once before – train got delayed by 14 hours – reached at 11 pm and I had to call my dad to come and pick me up from the station – in short, the plan was a major flop). But success comes to those who wait... :D
Once they were over my Bollywood-style entry and used to my presence, we could talk about something other than “How I came to be there”.
In the evening we went to our “family Puchkawala” (We have gone to him for years, ever since I was born, in fact. He, his brother, and before them, their dad have fed us puchkas for years. Hence, the term). I gorged on the puchkas, the alu dum and the “chur-mur.”
My brother Nikhil came down from college (he was the only one who knew I was coming – my “inside” man). I met the student I had started my tuition teaching career with – I barely reach his shoulder now… Went and met a few of my neighbours, who introduced me to their relatives as “Happy Home-er May” LOL… Then one of them told me proudly that her grand daughter is in class 12 now and “O ekhon tumar moton I tuition daaye” – “She gives tuitions now, just like you used to” (Man… I was such a role model… :P)
I realized how oooold I have grown… I used to play with these kids (like the big didi and all) and I’ve seen them grow up. They barely reached my waist in the first memories I have of them. Now all of them are 17 or 18 years old. I felt like a senior citizen… sob!
I went to get my eyes checked – to the same doc who’s been taking care of blind me for years. My first prescription (carefully preserved by Mommy) reads – “Baby Nidhi Chadha – age 5 years.” He was pretty glad to see me. Good news – my eyes now have negative power as well but weirdly, it’s better than before. I have never really understood my eye power. I tried once, but it was too complicated to figure out. Some stupid cylindrical power that is so one-of-a-kind that no company manufactures contact lenses for it... Dammit!
I did quite a bit on my first day there… but I had quite a problem getting used to the sweltering heat…
Every time I go back home I get this weird feeling that things have changed. But have they, really? I mean, my family is the same… home is the same… I guess all that really changes is me. I’m a different person whenever I go back. Life used to feel so complete the last time I went home… and I am so not sure what it is now…
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