The return

Ten years had passed since she had last set foot in her native land of north Kerala. It did not have to be ten years but her parents had decided that travelling to India was an indulgence they could ill afford and were willing to wait for a more permanent reason to return. She was thirteen and slender with big dark eyes and masses of hair that seemed to overbalance her frame. Her sister was five years older and was the darling of her grandmother’s heart till she left. Her grandmother never forgave her father for uprooting her eldest grandchild from her heart and her home.
She knew of her maternal uncles and grandmother only through her sister’s memories. Her sister would talk about plaiting coconut palm fronds for the roof of grandma’s cowshed or walking about in the fields learning about the obscure little plants popping up among the vegetables or pulses that were planted in between the paddy harvests. She was a good story teller and soon the younger girl’s imagination was full of the scent and colour of the water lilies that grew profusely in the little canal close to the Chemballi River.
So they all made the long, tiresome journey to her mother’s home and she clambered down from the taxi onto a road too narrow to admit cars. Her mother led the way to the house and she went eagerly onward. Her younger brother was quiet as usual. Her sister seemed to remember the place and she was smiling one of her rare smiles. Her maternal uncle had come to greet them and so did his wife and infant son whom they were all seeing for the first time. She craned her neck for a glimpse of her little grandmother but saw no one fitting that description. Almost the entire village had gathered to see the return of one of their own.
Her father’s booming voice broke out over the strained silence. He asked for her grandmother and then she reluctantly came out of the dark house. She was completely impassive. Not a gesture of warmth or affection crossed her face. She spoke in clear and measured words enquiring about their health and telling them to come inside. She did not look at the grandson who was born in another country and who was a complete stranger to her. She had no smile for anyone and she looked at the returnees as if from a great distance away. The young girl shivered as though suddenly cold. She felt anger at her grandmother’s ruining of the long-awaited homecoming. She did not see the endless days her grandmother had waited in despairing hope or the silence of the long years that had frozen her heart. The return was as painful as the leaving...