Well, this again is Bangalore. It has been exactly 2 months since I was here last. And I'm here for just a week before I fly back to Minneapolis again for about 5 weeks - hopefully gorgeous as it can be.
Homecoming never loses its potency even if you're traveling all the time. A total of 6 or so months in the last 24 months in Bangalore still means Sangam Reunions - now with expanded families comprising spouses & children - still somehow awkwardly suspended between the Sangam years & the present. Homecoming means a return to a familiar routine & squabbles - nothing exceptionally celebratory, yet like an idiosyncratic way that you could not really do without. It means watching a little cricket on television, it means speaking an abominable mix of languages in one sentence, it is the juicy expletive you throw out at the auto rickshaw passing you by inches from your car, it is the dirt on your collars & cuffs, the phone you answer by saying "haan re".
It is a tall lamp in your living room; & a little jazz in the air. It is the uplifting strumming of an unknown raga, unshapely rotis & something delectable about the potatoes.
