1. That "in-between" trip

I grew up in Mumbai, speaking English as my first language, reading Dr Seuss, and attending an Anglican school. My hero was Messi, my cultural icons drawn from the world of Marvel Comics. As children, my sister and I knew our future lay in America, where we would move to pursue higher education and limitless opportunity. But my grandparents, who also lived in Mumbai, had a different perspective. They had grown up considering the Konkan coast of India their true home, steeped in its culture, philosophy, and traditions. They felt a deep sense of belonging to that community in a way that was oddly foreign to me. 

When I was eight, my parents were keen that we take a road-trip with my grandparents so that my sister and I could experience our traditional culture and family history. We would spend a week touring the villages and hamlets where my grandfather had been born, schooled, and spent his boyhood, and where my grandparents frequently returned to mark events like weddings, funerals, and festivals. 

My parents knew this wasn’t a vacation they could easily sell to us. It meant enduring broiling summer heat (routinely topping 110 degrees F), navigating cratered roads, and keeping our fingers crossed that we’d find reliable stops on the way. I’d have to meet innumerable strangers, who’d speak to me in Konkani, our community dialect, which I didn’t fully understand and couldn’t speak myself. For an eight-year-old boy, it didn’t sound like fun. 

Astutely, my parents sandwiched the plan between two dream holiday destinations – we would first explore the hilly green coffee estates of Coorg, with its scenic hikes and trails, and later visit the beaches of Goa by the Arabian sea. The trip to my grandparents’ home would lie “in between.” Convinced solely by the bookends, I agreed. 

Ten years later, the only thing I remember about that summer is that “in-between” trip. 

We travelled from Bombay to Coorg and then to Goa, all visible in this 1910 map of British India. On the way from Coorg to Goa, we visited Katapadi, a small village just south of Udupi.