A Place Called Home

The flight had landed ten minutes ahead of schedule. Mobile phones came on, and a cacophony of conversation began. No one heeded the requests from the crew about waiting to open the overhead lockers storing the luggage. As passengers on a late-night flight, everyone wanted to get out of the aircraft as fast as possible.

Riya pulled out her overnight case and looked out of the window. It was pouring! She ran across the gangway and into the bus waiting to take the passengers to the arrival terminal.
Surprisingly, she got a cab in ten minutes. The late hours had their own advantages. She was tired and a bit hungry. Her last meal had been a cup of coffee and a cookie. The roads were deserted, with only the odd vehicle whizzing past. She rested her head against the window glass and closed her eyes.

Late night arrivals had always been a part of her life. She thought about the days when she would arrive from her business trips at 11.00 Pm or even later, often having to wait in a queue for a cab, sometimes haggling with cabbies who wanted to be paid more once they dropped her home. Then, hearing the noise, lights would come on across the windows on the street. Her mother in law would scold her the next day about how she had ‘disgraced the family’ by ‘creating a scene outside at night.

Yes, she could have taken an early morning flight the next day. Still, then, her company was loathing to pay for another day of hotel accommodation. Besides, she found it very tiresome to reach home mid-morning and have to deal with the ongoing domestic crisis, which somehow seemed to always have to do with her absence!
It had been easier to slink in quietly in the dark, gently shaking Ramdin awake and asking him to unlock the front gate as she let herself into the house through the side door.
Her mother-in-law would be fast asleep in her room and Aatish in theirs with the bedroom door bolted from inside. She would try knocking, knowing very well that it would be of no use. She would then change into her nightclothes and drop to sleep on the settee in the living room, warding off the mosquitoes for the rest of the night.
Aatish would open the door in the morning, looking surprised that she was back. No apologies for locking her out. He always had the same excuse – “You know this door opens by itself if it is bolted from inside. And then the mosquitoes would come in

” Of course! The mosquitoes!! And then life would begin. Boiling milk, cooking and then rushing off to work. It had always been like that every time she travelled but travel, she had to. As the rising star in the marketing and sales department, she had to meet clients and have firsthand information of the sales trends in each territory
“Take it easy! You can’t continue doing this when you start a family,” her friend Tara used to tell her. But both of them knew that what she passed as family and home now were not something that she would bring another human being into.

“Madam, we have reached your location,” asked the cab driver startling her out of her thoughts. She paid him and slowly made her way across the puddled and potholed street.
Chhotu, from the tea shop across the road, came running towards her saying, “Didi, let me help you with your bag”. As both of them made their way through the narrow stairwell, a brown body flung itself on her, wagging its tail and trying to lick her face. “Hey Sheru!!! I know, you missed me boy.” she said laughingly, as she patted him down.
The little party consisting of a woman, a boy and a dog reached the third floor with Chhotu chattering about how his English test marks had improved.
Just as she fished out the keys from inside her bag, a tiffin box held up by a pair of plump arms was thrust in front of her face.

“I kept some dinner for you. I knew you would be hungry,” said Susheela Aunty from the flat across the landing.
Taking her bag from Chhotu and the food from Aunty, Riya shut the front door and sank down on the nearest chair with Sheru’s head resting on her lap.
It was nearly midnight now. She was exhausted and thrilled.
It had taken her more than ten years, but she had finally found her way home to her family.