Finally, the suspense ended. But not in the "I just won the lottery" kind of way. More like the "I just realized I'm wearing two different socks" kind of way.
I wasn't happy. I was supposed to be going on a trip with my friends to celebrate finishing our 10th board exams. We had plans. We had snacks. We had freedom. But then my so-called "cool mom" stepped in, pulled me by the arm, and practically pushed me onto a train heading in the opposite direction.
"It's for your cousin's birthday, Isha!" she'd said, beaming. "Summer vacation in Nagpur!"
So here I am, five-foot-nothing, stuck on an Indian train, sweating through my favorite hoodie.
The only thing I actually love about Indian trains is the food vendors. It's like a moving hotel. Every second, a new person walks by yelling something delicious. Chai! Samosa! Chips! I wanted to buy every single item, one by one. But every time I looked at my mom, she gave me a stare so sharp it felt like I'd just asked her to buy me a private villa in Mumbai.
I tried to keep my "tough" face on, but then the last vendor walked by.
He was carrying Kaale Channa Chaat.
My favorite. My absolute whole heart. Okay, maybe not my whole heart, because I love a lot of other special foods too, but it was definitely occupying a large section of it right then. My eyes welled up. I felt like I was going to cry at any second. My mom looked at me and sighed.
"Isha, don't start," she said.
"I can't help it," I muttered, my cheeks puffing out. When I'm sad—and especially when I'm hungry—my face stops looking like a human face and starts looking like a golgappa. Round, tense, and ready to pop.
I stared out the window as the train rattled toward Nagpur. I was missing the trip of a lifetime with my friends for a birthday party for my mom's cousin's daughter. I didn't even know her name.
But then I remembered something. Nagpur meant Nagpur breakfast. Poha. Tarri. Spices that make your nose run and your soul feel alive.
Maybe things couldn't be "great" yet. Maybe I was still just a short girl with a golgappa face stuck on a train to a family function I didn't want to attend. But as the smell of the channa chaat faded and the thought of breakfast took over, I realized that even if my life wasn't great, it was definitely going to be well-fed.