What 36 hours (and counting) of the journey – including a 16 hour long flight and long waits at three airports (and one more segment left) could not do to my steely resolve, the first aroma of Indian food wafting thru the Delhi airport after security did it to me. That rich aroma – harbinger of some really delectable taste – hit my olfactory nerves with vengeance unseen hitherto and I folded like an old lawn chair in the yard.

Even for a non-foodie like me, I could not resist delving into some signature dishes from the West (Pav Baji) and the South (Idli) post haste.

We were sailing smoothly towards New Delhi from Newark on United Airlines 801. Towards the end of the trip, just as we were around the air space over where Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan meet, we took a rather convoluted anti clockwise circular approach before getting back to what appears to be our original path.

It cannot be any landscape issue – we were comfortably high to clear the Hindukush.

Was it for any geopolitical air space reasons? Does anybody have an idea? Some of you who gave taken this route frequently, have you seen this before?

This one is going to be special. It was Dec 18th last year, around 6PM in India, when my mother had suddenly collapsed and died. Dad, who witnessed it (and lived only for a few weeks after that himself) had yelled for help. The domestic help rushed over in seconds but by then mom was on the floor foaming around her mouth and with no perceivable heart beat.

I was not there.

A few weeks back, over drinks with Sharmila, we decided that I will try to be at the same spot where mom had died. At that very moment – exactly one year later. And that is what I am attempting to do today. All this omicron variant and new travel regulations from India, the state of West Bengal and US itself is going to make the trip interesting. But I am hoping to make it all the way there.

I may not be able to see the siblings much (they are busy with their things) but the goal is to try and visit the homes in different towns and places mom had spent her life in. There is that village called Uplati where she was born, the town called Kalna where she went to school and college and, of course, Durgapur where she moved after getting married and finally Kalyani where she spent the last few years of her life.

Also, hoping to spend some time with my mother in law (only surviving parent from Sharmila and my side).