Let the shenanigans begin (quietly).
It is strange to be home twice in a span of one year after leaving almost a year ago. I have to repeatedly say I am not a child and then find myself helpless, because I no longer know where things are. 24 hours of sleeping later, no amount of aids will allow me to sleep and thus I am awake at 4 am, replying to emails, trying to do things that have fallen by the wayside in the madness of the last month. I am curious about how my time here will be. I have work to do, I even have trips to make, I must say I am looking forward to that. I had forgotten how the fog enveloped everything, how bitterly cold it could be in Delhi. I think I had forgotten that one does not fall back into a relationship with Delhi suddenly, it is a slow, almost cautious maneuver. It helps to clutch on to a heater.
I have arrived with almost nothing, the non-prodigal return from Amreeka, the one who only brings back her complicated self, nothing more. This is the one trip, where I could not have dealt with unpacking at the airport, the impossibility of lugging around of luggage twice my weight. So I made my trip rather comfortable. I had several hours at Newark, an airport which I am given to understand is always dealing with more passengers than its capacity. I spent a lot of time wandering, eating, reading, trying to stay awake. Our flight was quite delayed, because of baggage loading problems - apparently it was finally manually loaded and then there were some technical snags with the flight. Finally all was well and we were on our way. I got to see a Woody Allen movie called Magic in the Moonlight and I mostly quite enjoyed it, if only for the unreal elements of life in it.
Exiting immigration took so much time and mostly because I did not know that Indian nationals no longer have to fill a disembarkation form and because the grumpy man checking the dates with passport stamps was really grumpy and it wouldn't feel like home if our queues weren't like a can of sardines (feel free to choose your metaphor).
I haven't met anyone except family yet but I have also not really left my room, or this bed. I will venture out at some point tomorrow, if only to eat dosas and idlis. There is no doubt, the Winter of 2014 will be full of much musings and happenings.
It is strange to be home twice in a span of one year after leaving almost a year ago. I have to repeatedly say I am not a child and then find myself helpless, because I no longer know where things are. 24 hours of sleeping later, no amount of aids will allow me to sleep and thus I am awake at 4 am, replying to emails, trying to do things that have fallen by the wayside in the madness of the last month. I am curious about how my time here will be. I have work to do, I even have trips to make, I must say I am looking forward to that. I had forgotten how the fog enveloped everything, how bitterly cold it could be in Delhi. I think I had forgotten that one does not fall back into a relationship with Delhi suddenly, it is a slow, almost cautious maneuver. It helps to clutch on to a heater.
I have arrived with almost nothing, the non-prodigal return from Amreeka, the one who only brings back her complicated self, nothing more. This is the one trip, where I could not have dealt with unpacking at the airport, the impossibility of lugging around of luggage twice my weight. So I made my trip rather comfortable. I had several hours at Newark, an airport which I am given to understand is always dealing with more passengers than its capacity. I spent a lot of time wandering, eating, reading, trying to stay awake. Our flight was quite delayed, because of baggage loading problems - apparently it was finally manually loaded and then there were some technical snags with the flight. Finally all was well and we were on our way. I got to see a Woody Allen movie called Magic in the Moonlight and I mostly quite enjoyed it, if only for the unreal elements of life in it.
Exiting immigration took so much time and mostly because I did not know that Indian nationals no longer have to fill a disembarkation form and because the grumpy man checking the dates with passport stamps was really grumpy and it wouldn't feel like home if our queues weren't like a can of sardines (feel free to choose your metaphor).
I haven't met anyone except family yet but I have also not really left my room, or this bed. I will venture out at some point tomorrow, if only to eat dosas and idlis. There is no doubt, the Winter of 2014 will be full of much musings and happenings.
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