The first thing we saw when as we came out of the airplane in Pune was a dog. He looked lost and a little bewildered but no one seemed particularly worried as he headed out towards the runway probably trying to get away from all the airplanes standing on the tarmac. I would have taken a picture but I was carrying my smallest one who had fallen asleep. My brother meanwhile sent me a picture of a mother at the baggage claim in Guwahati. A mother cat holding her baby in her mouth jumping over an empty baggage claim belt. He describes her as very self- assured.

That is more than can be said about me at this point. As we pick glasses, plates, trash cans, beds, beddings and register as foreigners in my country of origin, I have moments of extreme self-doubt. “WTF! What are we doing here? And really buying house wares again, like really for the zillionth time in my adult life???” If there is one thing that does not appeal to me,  it is domesticity. Of course the events of my life belie this, but, really I am one of those women who hopes that her home will run magically on invisible and well oiled wheels, and,  then is constantly surprised and chagrined when it doesn’t. When I left my ex husband I had carried NONE of my domestic belongings. He had the privilege to keep them all. I left with two suitcases. And when Tom and I had met, we had picked up one set of used plates and glasses. For many months we had eaten off the same plate.. I remembered those days when we packed up our house in Berkeley and put our belongings in storage. Such little hoarders we are. Or is it just us? Or is it because we have children and must needs be domesticated? Even the mother cat does what she needs to for her children.

So it is we head into our second day in Pune. I have promised the girls a visit to a coffee shop or a book store. The vibrancy which is what India represents for me whether the dog on a runway or the workshop in Kolkata is what brought us in part to India and we must live it every day. My three daughters, lovingly named Sleepy, Sneezy and Dopey for their colorful personalities eye my early morning enthusiasm warily.