When we arrived in India I felt like I had a box of my favourite chocolates, but unlike the normal box which has two layers, this was a special box, with multiple layers. Layer upon layer which would last 'for ever'.
You know, when you finish the top layer and move on to the bottom layer - you only have a few bites of enjoyment left. The box has been short lived. Or Like when you have a two week holiday and it is only in the first few days you feel you have ages and ages of enjoyment, time off work, down time. Then after the first week, like going on to the second layer of the chocolates, the end is near!
I remember walking down the street in Mumbai to our air bnb. A short but extremely busy side street which lead on to the Colaba Causeway, a long main thoroughfare full of shops selling everything - juice bars, jewellery, cakes, savoury snacks, saris, dresses, children's clothes. Picture framing, dentists, stationery, toy shop (yes, a good old fashioned one like we used to have in pre Supermarket and on line days - called Souvenir by the way), very posh and expensive toiletry and cosmetic brand, towels, bed linen, not forgetting buckets, basins, measuring jugs, sponges, and of course chemists - you will never have to walk far to find a chemist in India - every third shop may be a chemist. Some are big modern bright shops but I prefer those tiny old fashioned ones, with the brown wooden framed glass counters, and shelves to the ceiling stocked with everything you could ever need for health and well being. I know we ought to have meds prescribed only by a qualified doctor, but at times, to just stroll up and order the amoxycillin you know you need - in a way so wrong but oh so convenient.
As we strolled through Colaba, I finally felt at last I was 'living in the moment'. I did not have to rush the experience. I did not have to gulp in all the sights and sounds and scents because I had the most precious of things - TIME. More than one or two layers in the box! I knew I would walk these pavements tomorrow, and the next day and the day after, and I would still be walking them months later. Anyone who is a mum, who works full time, who has a house to run, and a multitude of other things to see to, knows that there is never enough time - so after 30 years of mummying and working and bossing and arranging and juggling - here I was - I could just BE! I had TIME.
It felt so good - we have all of November, December, then into 2023 January, and still two months left - and an extension to our days so Max could visit. We had for ever. And some more. And enough.
But. The end was abrupt. All of a sudden, I was on the bottom layer, and had eaten the very last chocolate. All gone.
It just seemed 'too quick'. The feelings of 'forever and more' were over. It was finished. It was time to return. The last page of the last chapter was read.
Before we knew it, we were back to square one - packing! And if you read one of my first stories 'Getting There', where I talk about us always managing to exceed our baggage allowance, no matter how generous, then yes, here we were trying to manage again. Six cases (well actually 4 large cases, a set of golf clubs, and a set of Tablas), and 3 cabin trolleys. And still we didn't have enough space or weight. And still I sweated buckets trying to fit everything in. And still I swore I would never again carry so much - as I have done on every journey I have ever taken!
How to take fragile items, treasures collected on our way, how to wrap them so they did not break or smash. How to carry that precious bottle of fresh and pure coconut oil from a friend, all the way from their village in South India. How did I wrap so we did not have all our goods saturated if it leaked of spilled.
Paintings - maybe we should not have framed them - so big to fit in. Paintings - maybe we should have framed them so they do not get squashed. Paintings - maybe we should not have bought so many. 'Do you really have to carry that wooden tree branch' I was asked -'Well, yes, it was from the forest in Matheran, a momento to ease the days when we are back home and maybe feeling flat and lost.
The room looked as if it had been ransacked, and our flat mate - Tun Tun the cat, had a field day jumping in and out of half filled cases and rolling about inside bags - her favourite pass time. It is a wonder we did not arrive home with a cat in one of the cases. That cat ! She is a rascal and does her own sweet thing! She runs around the room, round and round like a whirling dervish and then leaps at your feet and legs, ready to have a nibble or a scratch! We are not used to cats but by the end of our stay she was simply 'one of us'. Maybe we will get one for ourselves - - - - -Even Max who was scared of her at the beginning ended up burrowing his face in her tiger fur, and missing her when she had gone AWOL in the house - hiding up high on a shelf, or lying somewhere we thought would be an impossible place for her to squirm in to.
Our last week was a busy one - well, if you count lying on a beach in Goa busy - maybe I should say an 'occupied week', where I did not really have a chance to mentally prepare myself for the next phase of our life. Many people have asked 'Did you have a good holiday', but this was not a holiday. It was us living our life - and part of our life is in Scotland, and it was time. Time to go 'home'. One day I got chatting to a girl in Mumbai - she talked about travelling how she had brought up her son and now she did not feel she has 'one home'. She felt wherever she was, that was home. Home for that day, that week or that month. I like that thought - that removal of boundaries, fences, static. And India feels like a home to me. People often ask me what is it about India I love so much - that needs more thought, because I am not really sure. So maybe I start to think more in terms of having two homes.
But to return home to Scotland, the Land of My Birth. To see and chat and meet up with wonderful friends who have been missed. Spring time - warm sunny, chilly winds, a hint of summer then a dusting of snow, swaying in the breeze those daffodils, yellow and smelling of spring. Hyacinths, mauve, pink, white with perfume which sweetens the air at home. Evenings where daylight remains until almost bed time, soft fresh air, space and rolling hills, and walks with the Thermos of Tea, with cheese and biscuits. Scones and jam, fish and chips, Cadbury's chocolate. Pa and Ben and Max. And a good cup of 'English Tea'.
Our last night was spent with our wonderful friends - Tinker Bell, Navaz, Kareena, Kayzad. Hayden was at a Kathak dance class. We feasted on delicious Chinese food - duck and pancakes, pork chung fung, chilli chicken, fried rice. Finished off with Kareena's wonderful tiramisu. Our last supper was beautiful.
And I know - we will meet again - when I next go home.
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