INDIA
Adopted by
ORPHANS E
ight months ago, I was forever away from returning home. Lufthansa flight 758 had just made its midnight landing in Chennai, Tamil-Nadu, India. I hopped off the plane, feeling completely alone. For the first time in my life, I felt orphaned. All that I’d ever known was a world away. Standing in crowded customs queues, where the only people who looked like me were off to five-star hotels or business
meetings, I wondered if I’d made a bad choice. The thought I don’t belong here ran through my head repeatedly. After getting my passport stamped, I headed down the escalator and waited for my bags. Starting my immersion experience off right, I thought when they showed up an hour later. I hauled my stuff outside the air-conditioned terminal and stepped out into the suffocating heat. Here we go.
I made my way through the crowd and found the only thing that looked familiar, my Anna (Tamil for elder brother), also known as Israel. He put flowers around my neck and gave me a hug that made me feel, if only for two seconds, like I was back with my family in America. “Welcome back,” he said. I put my things in the trunk of a taxi and crammed my knees into the passenger seat. We pulled into Israel’s driveway around three A.M., and for the next few hours I attempted to sleep. Later that day, we took the all-night train to go to my pseudo home for the next eight months—an orphanage. A fitting place for my brand-new life without a family. The next morning came a few hundred kilometers down the train tracks, and I’ve never been the same since. I reunited with 1
26
