It has been a while

I know. I dropped off the face of the earth for months. But, I'm back. I think.

Been a harrowing few months. Shuttling back and forth between the US and India. Ammi hovering near death for weeks at a time. The painful chemo, the mastesctomy, the smell of medicines and sickness, the nausea, then the numbness that takes over after a while.

Abbu had brought Ammi to Bombay from home in Indore for treatment. We stayed with my chacha in Worli. Chacha, chachi, and the rest of the extended family super helpful and patient with Abbu's and my constant demands and bouts of despair.

And Ammi made it. At least for now. She's pale and has very little hair right now. There's been a weird kind of happiness in the family over the last few weeks. We're happy, but somber at the same time. As I embraced Ammi at the airport to catch a flight back to the US, it hit home to me that her contours had changed. A part of her was missing. A cavity. She has to live the rest of her life with this incompleteness. But at least she's alive!