After a smooth flight, we yesterday arrived well back in India and at the Ashram. We had a night flight and that’s how Apra slept through most of it, making it possible for us to close our eyes a little bit as well. We had told her that my brother Purnendu would come to pick us up and that we would then go to the Ashram to meet everyone there. She was singing the names of all the people there while we walked through the airport, mixing some names of German friends in her song, too.
When we finally came out of the airport and met Purnendu, she was super happy but suddenly a bit shy, too. She smiled and was happy to sit on his arm but it seemed as though happiness had overwhelmed her. This was not the situation for long though! Soon she was in the car, excitedly describing the traffic around her. The cows, the horses, the people, the sounds of horn and all the other things that she had not seen on the roads in Germany. Another thing happened that has never happened to me in Germany but so many times in India – we had a puncture! This incident delayed our return to the Ashram for some minutes but finally we reached there.
It was wonderful to reach home with Apra. Everyone had been missing us and most of all her, so everyone came to greet her, to hold her, to play with her. She was amazed in the first minutes and overjoyed by seeing everyone. She ran from one to the other, making sure all were there and then started playing with Jay Singh and Mohit for the rest of the evening. She was so excited to be with them that again and again she took Jay Singh’s face in her both hands and said his name. Of course they were more than happy to play with her, too!
Everyone at the Ashram has one problem however: they have to learn German! Apra has learned so many German words and got used to speaking in German that many times people don’t understand her! She will repeat it and, if she knows the translation, repeat it in English or Hindi, too, but sometimes they have to turn to Ramona to get a translation – or guess until they know what she means!
While Apra then had a lengthy sleep in the afternoon, Ramona and I stayed up until the evening, knowing that this was the best method for us to get into the rhythm of this time zone. Our baby was not aware of this system though! She had slept nicely in the afternoon and had no intention to fall asleep on Indian time! Her sleeping time in Germany was around nine o’clock – and that’s when she finally slept. Half past twelve in the night we were finally allowed to sleep, too. Obviously we slept accordingly long, too! The fatigue of the journey and the missing sleep of the night before had its effect: when we got up in the morning, it was already ten o’clock. But we are quite confident that this time problem will get better just with time.
It was a beautiful return to the Ashram and I would say it is the happiest ever with Apra around wouldn’t there be one factor due to which this would be the saddest return. My mother was, for the first time in my life, not at home to welcome us back. Of course there was food to eat, of course there were arms to hug us and welcome us but the food made from her hands was not there, these arms were not there. She was not there and we missed her badly.
Again however, we look at Apra and let her cheer us up. My mother lives on in her and what she taught Apra in her first eleven months has helped making her the clever girl she is.
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