As the familiar mountains rose from plains, he wanted to point his finger and cry out loud like a child, "Look! There at the base of it is the town. My uncle lives there." But he shook his head to clear this thoughts invading him afterall he wasn't a little child anymore for he was returning home from a year at college. But he was helplessly smiling and he could do nothing with it. He couldn't stop his lips stretching into a smile. He thought, the familiar mountains and its air stimulated the smile.
Just as he entered the gates to his soil, he wanted to open his arms wide, face the sky just like he had seen the hero doing in one of the bollywood movies he had watched and breathe in the cool air for a long long time with his eyes closed. He couldn't do that too, for the crowd would think going to college makes one insane but little do they know how it feels to be home.
When the taxi dropped him to his parking lot, as expected, his kith and kins had gathered and waited patiently since the morning for his arrival but they didn't turn red when he reached a few hours before midnight. Instead just as he set his foot out on his soil he was greeted with lots of love and hug. His siblings offered to carry his bags to their house. And who was to be standing there in the balcony? It was his most dearly and the sole reason to come home; his parents. His mother ran her soft palm on his cheeks to believe it wasn't a dream. He looked right into her eyes and there he saw how these eyes had waited to see him in person. He could see how hard those eyes were fighting to keep the tears in. Just then his father pulled him and stood beside him. "See?" His father cried out. "He has outgrown me. My son has grown up." He declared. His aunt and her daughters who were as dearer as his siblings stood there with those lovely smiles.
Finally when he entered their little palace, a sumptuous dinner had been set on the table. They sat down around the table and unlike other nights ate with laughter and joy.
That night, when everyone retired to sleep and lights were put off, he smiled to himself in disbelief that he is home again. I am unsure what others did that night but i saw silent tears rolling down his cheeks. I couldn't say why was he silently weeping that night but assumed that the ema datsi that was served to him was spicy for it was long time since he had tasted ema datsi, otherwise he only knows why.
