US and back again

Hopefully Nitin will post pics of the trip to let you know how flower fairies, burdae parties, beach trips and the eight-state soiree (yes, we even got Rhode Island and Delaware in there!) went. But I was struck on the plane ride by how I used to fly to India really excited to see all my family and then would return to the US really depressed and heavy-hearted the whole plane ride back. (It was so bad that I didn't even like to travel after Assam -- just wanted to come home and wallow until normalcy kicked in with the start of the school year). I think the answer is to be an RNRI -- you feel excitement going both ways and situations in both countries drive you to escape to the other... So it was for me on this lone journey (Nit and Naya are staying another week, and I always say I am fine without one of them but both??) back.
And the other thing is that being out of India for a few weeks and re-entering brought back that sensation and thrill of arrival -- the smell that combines dust, urine, sweat, incense, sandalwood, rosewater and all the exotica that is the script of Indian writers/homecoming queens like me.