Mumbai International Airport, 2 a.m.

And so, a journey that began on a rainy morning in Mumbai comes to an end in the same city with another midnight downpour. I arrived on the first day of the Ganesh festival- the day on which clay statues of the beloved half-man, half-elephant diety are installed in homes and temples across the region- and here I am now, watching them being led in endless procession back to the sea where the smaller, less expensive versions dissolve almost immediately while the larger incarnations bob up and down, trunks and limbs flailing in the brackish water before eventually being reclaimed for another year. Ashes to ashes, tusk to tusk. In India, even ten days is like a lifetime.
I will miss home.