Vacation In India

Spent the last month in India. It was amazing. I took off on 27th Oct from Los Angeles. The flight of Eva Airlines was quite comfortable.I had a 14 hrs flight to Taiwan then after a stopover of 2 hrs, I had to take 6 hrs flight to Bombay. The first 14 hrs went smoothly, saw couple of movies, got plenty of sleep. However, the last 6 hrs felt like longest of my life. I was going back home after 2.5 yrs and couldn't wait to land in Bombay.

When the flight landed, I dashed off the aircraft as soon as possible and ran towards the airport.
As soon as I entered the airport, a strong smell of phenyl welcomed me. Bombay airport has changed a lot and for better. One thing you notice when you come back to India after long time is that it has to many people. There were at least 5-6 ppl asking the passengers to queue up before immigration, plenty of ppl helping in baggage claim, hell there was even a guy pointing to ppl in the direction of the restrooms.

I was nervous abt the customs check becoz I was carrying lot of stuff with me. But everything went smoothly. V came to the airport to receive me and we took the cab. The cab did not have left and right mirrors, its trunk was half open during the ride, rear windows did not open , no seat belts and driver was driving on the wrong side of the road. F*ck.I was shit scared and I had to remind myself that I am in India.

In the afternoon, I had to make few calls to let few friends know I was in the country. I made phone calls from a PCO and when I was paying for the calls, strong smell of incense sticks ( agarbattis in Hindi) entered my nostrils. It was coming from the nearby coconut vendor who had just begun the day.Suddenly it struck me, I was HOME. Its an amazing feeling. I couldn't stop smiling the whole day.

I had to wait a while before catching the delayed domestic flight to Nagpur. Sachin came to the airport to receive me with the bouquet in his hand. I was meeting him after a long time and felt to great to see him. After another harrowing taxi ride ( this one had the seat belts in it) , I was home in 20 mins.

Everyone from the family rushed out to the front yard and wouldn't let me in for another hour.
My dad came running down the staircase with the fractured foot. It was great to see everybody. I cannot describe the way I felt at that moment.Phone calls started pouring in, everybody speaking so loudly at 11 o clock in the night, lots of happy and surprised faces.It was chaotic and yet great.

I was Home.