I had a fantastic trip to India end of Dec. After a few years, it felt like a holiday when I could relax and catch up with friends. Last few years India trips have been a haze rushing from one city to other. One trip, we were in 4 cities in 3 weeks! So this time I decided to put my foot down on various parents and in-laws plan to take us to various religious places or cities to meet random extended family who I am sure is not exactly dying to meet us. We were in Bombay for a week and Delhi for 2 weeks. Bombay was so cool - Sourabh and I used to hang out all day discovering coffee shops and meeting friends for lunch. We went and had lunch in cafe Leopold's, coffee at Mocha and a place called Moshe's which was exactly like a restaurant in NY city. We spent time with papa in the evenings and went to Haaji Ali juice center with him (strawberries and cream are to die for!). I could also catch up with a lot of friends who have been very close at various points in my life, who I have sort of stayed in touch with but not had a proper chat session in years. Delhi was more boisterous family time, playing with the niece, jalebis and milk every night, frequent trips to Wengers, lunch at Big Chill, nostalgic trip with old girl friends to the railway colony.
It was very hard to come back, especially as I was coming without Sourabh to cold NYC. But I must say, once I was here, I really enjoyed the snow, getting back to the old routine, shopping with crazy discounts everywhere. Maybe I have finally accepted that India is no longer where I live and may never live again. It will always be home and trips back always full of nostalgia but maybe where I am is not half bad and it is time to build my own traditions, my own memories here which my children can feel nostalgic about. That the memories I have no longer exist with my family scattered with me caught in the cross-fire. That every trip back home comes with a considerable amount of pain as I come face to face with my parents separation and the loneliness they live with.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
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