Solving for X: 12

I belong to a matrilineal community of India. My mother’s home is where I grew up and what I still call my permanent home. My mother’s parents lived with us and back in those days my community practiced joint family. Food was always an integral part of home, so was celebrations, both festival and birthday celebrations. 

My grandmother’s home was just across the road. It was called the “tharavadu” (pic attached) or ancestral home. We would gather here to meet our cousins and play in the garden. The tharavadu is no more.