ARRIVAL

She was born in Kerala in her maternal grandparents' home. Came to Bangalore when she was 5 months old to start living in a nuclear family with her parents. Tamil was her mother-tongue. She belonged to the community of people who spoke a dialect of Tamil that the Tamilians found funny! They predominantly had Kannadiga neighbors. They visited Kerala during the summer holidays and occasionally visited an uncle in Chennai. She didn't feel she belonged anywhere. Not in Bangalore, where she was in the minority. Not in Kerala, where she was in the minority. And definitely not in Chennai. She could never speak in Tamil with a Chennaiite, and not feel conscious! A minority everywhere.

Years passed by. She went to an Engineering college and there were students from allover India. There were some ethnic groups and she tried fitting in with the Malayalee group and the Tamil group, but didn't fit in either.

Some more years passed by, and she ran into him. They really hit it off from the moment they met and fell in love. They got married. One lazy afternoon as they sat in their living room basking in the sunlight that flooded their apartment through the windows, she gazed into his eyes and saw herself staring back. She realized that she had arrived. At last she felt belonged ... she belonged to him.