Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.

Leaving Southern India and returning to the UK was a very difficult phase in my life to say goodbye to. This coming October it will be 20 long years since I arrived at Chennai Airport with two street dogs ( that’s another story) in tow, about to ‘ go home’. It didn’t take me long to realise that I was in fact leaving home and not going home. It was a truly shocking experience.

I don’t need rose-tinted-glasses to look back on my time in India and tell you they were easily the best days, months and years of my life. Without a shadow of a doubt.

Stepping off the plane into intense heat, the smell of wood smoke and the sound of crows high up in the trees will stay with me forever. Sensory overload, you might say. My eyes and possibly my mouth were wide open as I took it all in. The traffic, the people, dogs, music, car and rickshaw horns vying for supremacy. The  trucks and billboards sent colour my way. The incense, sandalwood, my favourite. The road kill.

I got to know the East Coast Road well and I think they got used to seeing me on a daily basis. I don’t think I was a novelty for long. The people so gentle, kind and hospitable.

I was quite in awe of the ladies in their saris of every hue. Many walked as on air, so graceful and yet carrying a load. The food was a amazing, especially the breakfasts, Pongal and absolute favourite.

And now I must stop! ….

As I sit here now with today’s prompt from WordPress in front of me, I know I cannot do justice to the story I would like to tell, in just a few paragraphs.

So many threads entwined in that rich tapestry.