Home is where the heart is

From Delhi to Goa, to Mumbai, and back to Los Angeles

The name of the game is “Making a Neighborhood,” and it turns out that even when halfway across the world, it’s still just the very small acts that make one feel right at home.

This summer across the Indian subcontinent, from the neighbors of neighbors who welcomed me into their living rooms, to the rickshaw drivers who asked “where you from” in kind, to the locals with suggestions on just what dish to find while in town, acts of both community and responsibility towards one another—performed best and daily by working-class people—allowed “J.T. the L.A. Storyteller” to go from one city to the next.

In turn, as summer comes to a close and another trail of heat lies behind us, yours truly gets to move forward with only more of the planet’s urban landscape and people in mind. And whether in Los Angeles or Mumbai, it happens that we’re all headed to the same place after all; that is, home, but only until after taking as much of the world back with us as we can. This is what makes our humble community—locally and globally—a special place indeed.

J.T.