The Homecoming

...

Ameya had a thick head of hair. A shock of black that could identify his bobbing head from a mile afar. Which is why, leaning on the cold railing of the foot over bridge Shalini could spot him long before she actually saw his face.

His lanky, long frame could also have something to do with it. And now as they walked side by side, she noticed how his trousers were clearly a size smaller and the way he kept pushing the waistband down.

She also felt a pang watching him slow his walk so that she could keep up. Two years and a million miles between them - and the chasm couldn't have felt wider. Mey, as she called him, had been sent to study in a boarding school the previous year. First the letters had been long and many. And even as Shalini had kept her promise of writing every week, he had slowly dropped off from that calendered frequency.

Now sitting next to him in the auto rickshaw, other things caught her attention. He sat straighter than before and the skin of his cheeks, always so easy to flush, now looked weathered.

"What?" He looked at her - not cross but still making her feel like an intruder.

"Oh nothing. I was just wondering if you... you were too tired"

He grunted in response. She knew what a redundant statement it had been. Two hours on a mountainous road followed by a 24 hour long train ride. Anyone would be tired, and Ameya was only fifteen.

The auto slowed behind a bullock cart festooned with bright red flags and plastic flowers. An angry looking deity and an underclad child sat atop the cart. A man in dreadlocks and baggy pants walked next to the cart, ringing a bell and shouting a chant. Scooters took a wide berth while passing the little cattle human party. And the man with the baggy pants lunged at anyone who came close enough.

The auto driver swore out loudly. The bells stopped. Shalini looked on in horror as the baggy pant man ran straight at the auto and grabbed the driver by the collar. The whole auto shook as the two men struggled.

She could feel the tears welling up and the thumping of her chest reaching the throat. But somehow her hand had reached Ameya's and was grabbing it with a fierce force. A sharp scream made its way out of her mouth. The auto stopped shaking momentarily.

The assailant looked at her with surprise. But then his face was smacked out of her vision, even as his body, baggy pants and all,
crumpled down on the road.

She noted that Ameya's left hand had not flinched but the aim from the right one had met its mark with much ease and force.

"Chalo bhaiya" she squeaked at the auto driver who had thankfully regained enough composure to do as he was told to. And as they inched around the cart she saw the face of the child on it, grinning back at her.

"Mey" she squeezed her brother's hand in hers "I've missed you"

He grunted.

"So they make you talk like pigs at school" it slipped out before she could think.

For a minute their eyes locked, and then a crinkle appeared around his. A deep throated laughter broke the weathered skin back into the face of the brother she remembered. She laughed and mimicked his grunts and then they laughed again.

"Don't tell Ma that I hit that man, ok?"

"And miss seeing her pull your ears off"
She laughed, gently tugging at the ear near her.

"Shalu sorry" his voice had indeed deepened in the last year "sorry that I did not write more".

"It's ok bhai. It's ok" she smiled at the person who was suddenly again the brother she remembered "it's good to have you back!"

And he grunted in response.