In Between

It's now 9:23 am, January 9, almost 24 hours since I waved my family goodbye through the security gates at Newark International Airport. The nervous excitement I felt at the beginning of the journey has been dulled completely by the dense fog of fatigue swirling in my mind. I look down at my feet and am surprised to find that they, on the other hand, have acquired a life of their own. They are shaking with utter unawareness and desperate impatience as I approach my final destination. The last leg of my trip is a domestic flight from Delhi to Bhopal. Adding to my impatience, the plane is making an extra stop in Indore, the commercial capital of the Mahdya Pradesh province, before arriving in Bhopal. Stopped on the runway of the Indore airport, I close my eyes while we wait for some passengers to exit, and some new ones to board. I will arrive in Bhopal in just 20 minutes.