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31 - Chennai

31 - Chennai

Maya Sumedh

The delicious humidity of Chennai city struck us hard when we emerged from the Arrivals terminal at close to lunchtime, bellies stuffed with gross airplane food. The tarmac of the road was baking, blazing under the burning sun, a stark contrast to the cold weather back home. But the cool Chennai breeze was blowing, ruffling my hair in a friendly way as we waited in the shade of the terminal. Dad’s brother, my Deepak chacha, was coming to pick us up, bringing Alia along with him.

 “He’s your what?” Luke asked in my ear as we waited. Layla and Sam were having a hushed conversation next to us and Ma and Dad were stuffing our passports back into their bags.

 “My chacha,” I said, laughing. “As in dad’s brother. Dad’s sister is bua, mum’s brother is mama, and mum’s sister is mausi.”

 He blinked at me. “Um...I’ll pretend like I understood that. What do I call him?”

 “Deepak uncle, I guess,” I said. “My other uncle’s name is Farzad, so you’ll call him Farzad uncle.”

 “Huh.”

 “Oh look, there they are,” Dad said, gesturing at a blue XUV that came swerving into view, zooming along and coming to a halt in front of the terminal – I saw Alia grinning widely from the front seat, hair short and spiky like I remembered, glasses crooked. She waved at us and we waved frantically back.

 Deepak chacha got out of the driver’s seat and then he and my dad roared each other’s names and slapped each other on the back, grinning. Alia scampered over to us, and first got fussed over by my mum, but was freed because then Deepak chacha had to show his affection to Ma as well. Then she turned to us and squealed.

 “You guys! I’ve missed you!”

 “I missed you too!” Sam crowed, scooping her up before me or Layla could do anything. She laughed, her typical high-pitched Alia laugh, and hugged Sam tight before grabbing me and Lay at the same time – she smelled like chamomile tea and paint thinner and was dressed in her typical tie-dye tank top and shorts, her collarbones just as protruding as I remembered, with her tiny little moles scattered around her ears and neck. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her.

 “You both have lost so much weight,” she muttered, when she let us go.

 “I’ll speak for myself, I haven’t,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Anyway, Alia – you know Luke.”

 Alia grinned up at Luke – she was shorter than me so Luke towered over her considerably.

 “Of course. You must be the exotic American boyfriend.”

 Luke chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t know about exotic, but yeah, you got everything else right.”

 She laughed and said something but I couldn’t hear it because I was suddenly enveloped in a bone-crushing hug and the smell of coconut trees.

 “Maya! How’s my moti little girl?”

I laughed into Deepak chacha’s chest, wrapping my arms around him as far as they would go, squeezing tight.

 “Not so moti anymore, Deepak chacha.”

 He laughed and pulled back, winking at me. “We have to change that, don’t we?”

 It was impossible not to have fun around Deepak chacha, his wide grin was infectious and he was almost always laughing. Layla and Sam got the whole bear hug-dose and then Deepak chacha turned to Luke.