Coming Home

One step off the plane and the sticky night air wraps itself around me like a thick blanket. I can feel it working its way across my skin, into my clothes and hair (which begins to curl on contact) and I close my eyes for a brief moment as the scent of the city washes over me. It's almost second nature now, making my way through customs and baggage claim, straining my neck to find the familiar faces waiting for me in the crowded waiting area outside, hailing a cab and finally making it home in the dead of night (I've never actually arrived in Mumbai in the daytime before), only to collapse in bed and wake up to the sound of the city beneath my feet. I'm finally home.

Last summer when I came here I was so nervous about being alone that the first few days in Mumbai, I was consumed with doing the right thing, saying the right thing, being the right person and trying dreadfully hard not to offend anyone. It took me at least a week to feel fully comfortable; but this time I just ease back into the rhythm here without a second thought. It really does feel like home now. I can wander back and forth across the hallways to all the different houses on the floor, hail a rickshaw with my cousins to go to the station and stop in the kitchen before every meal to chat with my bhabhis and attempt to learn another recipe. I'm not nearly as paranoid or nervous about going around on my own and even though what little I can manage in Hindi can hardly be called language "skills" I can feel it all coming back to me just by being here.

I leave for Bangalore on Friday, which is another place I can maybe call a home of sorts. It will be strange to be back there without my classmates and friends, but this time, I'll get to know the city on a whole new level, one in which I'll only have myself to rely upon and a greater responsibility to really understand this place and my place in it. I think the first order of business though, will be ordering a sweet lime soda.