Zayn, the most senior barista at Josie’s, is my only family in the entire city. Unlike everyone else here, I don’t have to make an appointment to see him. Yes, in the US, you have to book a spot in people’s calendars if you wish to meet them, even neighbours and old friends at times. It was a huge shock for me when I first moved here because back in Delhi, I would just give a call to my friends and in a matter of minutes, all of them would turn up on my terrace for an impromptu pizza party. We always fancied pizza because our moms treated it as junk food and didn’t let us have it regularly. They would mostly feed us parathas in the morning before school and roll up some veggies inside rotis and put them in our tiffin boxes. If we behaved well for a week, we were rewarded with tiffin-wali Maggi, another junk food item that Indian mothers dished out sparingly. But that was a different kind of life altogether. Once I moved here, I found myself microwaving frozen pizza for dinner at least thrice a week. Now, however, I crave parathas, but I’m too lazy to cook them for myself.

Christmas is roughly two weeks from now, which means that the smell of hot chocolate is everywhere. It’s a smell that Americans find very comforting, for it evokes memories of being home. I take a deep breath as I walk through downtown Chicago—that’s where I live and work—feeling like one of the protagonists from the Hollywood movies I grew up watching. Each step that I take is full of pride. Each step proclaims, ‘I’ve made it big!’ Because my promotion at Beta, the biggest software company in the world, ensures that I have a six-figure salary now. I give myself a virtual pat on the back.

I really think December is the best time of the year. I visit my uncle Joginder, aka Joe, in San Francisco every year during the Christmas-New Year holidays, and my aunt Manpreet, aka Mannie, feeds me super delicious home-cooked meals like my mother once did. When I’m there with them, the smell of ginger tea and parathas made in ghee fills the air, and my heart too. Uncle Joe and Aunt Mannie are my only family on this side of the world.