Soon after the door was opened for me and I entered our home in Mumbai and greeted my parents, my mother made an observation about how my hair looked dry. I told her it's something about the desert water, perhaps. I had spent four days in Udaipur and two nights in Jaipur.

Because I was so busy the day I was to take the train from Delhi, I found no time to pack the shampoo that best agrees with the texture of my hair. I relied on hotel products. I was excited about showering in the bathroom at home as much as I was about eating food made by my parents, who always know how to greet my palate with my most favourite of comfort foods: prawn curry, rice and fried fish.