“Local time is 2.30 in the afternoon and temperature reads
at 37 degrees” announced the stewardess over the speakers just when the plane
touched the ground at Colombo Airport on a Saturday afternoon. It suddenly dawned on me that I have finally
realized the dream of returning home and a new adventure was beckoning. As I gazed outside the window Sri Lanka
welcomed me with bright sunny weather and coconut trees. An all too familiar sight that I use to take
for granted, had a renewed impact on me. Being away from home for 12 years
would do that to a person I guess. I
expected many things to have a renewed impact on me, life as I knew it for
awhile was going to change and I was ready.
A slow walk from the plane to customs taking in the heavenly lit
sunshine blasting through the glass windows allowed me to reflect about the
life I left behind and the one I was walking in to. My parents would be eagerly
waiting my arrival at the other side of customs, happy that their somewhat
empty nest would be filled up again and happy to be back with me. I on the other hand had mixed emotions. Elated to be finally reunited with them and
not having to live so far away to see the smiles on their faces but reticent about
my country and my people not quite accepting my evolved self. London without a doubt changed me. But I managed to save that little bit of me
which had a strong connection to my roots.
That was my calling. That and a song by Baz Luhrmann!
My sister greeted me with her usual nonchalant self at the
airport exit, comfortably seated in the driving seat of the Honda civic which
was going to be a faithful companion in my new adventure. My family is not the expressive kind but the
love I felt in that car ride home need not have been expressed in words. It was an overwhelming feeling of completion
that only lovers feel in each other’s company.
I still get that feeling during car rides with my parents and sister.
Everything that I would ever need in my life fit in to a tiny compartment and
it wouldn’t matter where we ended up in as we were all together. It was us against the world. My family needed
me and everything felt so right. All the pegs fit in to all the right holes.
In Sri Lanka 2012, everything felt like a novelty to me. The forgotten traffic noise, people’s staring,
the constant sweat from the sweltering heat and the cultural nuances that had slipped
my mind which I had to re-learn. I came
with dreams I wanted to realize and people I wanted to be with, life felt
meaningful – a feeling that had escaped me for awhile.
