Bollywood music has a very strong effect on me, almost intoxicating. I assume it is the pull of the mother tongue, the primal hold that any "first" has upon us and upon the blueprint of our souls. It is the only kind of music that lifts me with elation and at the same time, fills my heart with such a bittersweet sorrow. I become momentarily immobile, desperate for the song to end yet longing for more. It calls me, calls me to some vaguely known world and an obscure but all too familiar culture and way of life that is together alien and an intrinsic part of me.

Do I know these faces? Do I recognise the smell of this earth it sings to?

I want to reach out and become a part of it sometimes, but it is surreal, like a half-awake dream. There is however, a part of me for sure that is content - smug almost - and at rest. It knows that this, all of this belongs to me and I belong to it, and nothing in the whole world can take that away. There are a thousand things that this music alludes to, some of them amazing, some terrible, some fascinating, some terrifying. And right there, in the midst of it all, there is a space for me. I don't have to fight for that space or assert my right to claim it. It is mine; inherited alongside the language, the faces, the legends the earth and the music. And whenever I listen to it, it leads me to that space among all them things, and I know that I have arrived home. (",)