A threadfin stew, and the idea of home

Cynics would say I am rootless. I'd say I am rooted in many places. I've lived in Bengaluru for 26 years, Delhi for 17. Bengaluru is the place I consider home, I speak Kannada passably, and I am deeply attached to the people and the city. Yet, I can't say I truly belong. I never really took to Delhi and its culture, although I speak Hindi decently. Mumbai is always exciting and feels like home for about a week, after which I'd rather go home. My Marathi is good enough to fool the locals for a while, and I like hearing my mother's tales of her life there—it gives me some feeling of closeness.

- SAMAR HALARNKAR

'Rawas caldeirada'.

(SAMAR HALARNKAR)

To make things more complicated, I feel a strong affinity for the place where my father came from, even though I have only a rudimentary command of Konkani. I love the music, I follow reels of musically inclined Goans—from choirs to school students to old women singing while they clean fish—and, yes, I can sing most of Lorna’s Bebdo. If you don’t know who and what that is, please Google and know your country better.