I used to travel to Delhi for work and it was so overwhelming—I felt like the outside was an assault to my senses. The pollution was a haze on every day. I felt trapped inside or in a car. I got Dengue or diarrhea or a cough from the air. It wasn’t safe for me to be independent the way I was at home. No walking to brunch, I had to schedule the driver.

Coming home always felt kind of like I was being freed from chaos.

But then sometimes, there’s something kind of addictive about the chaos of a city with too many people. It felt alive, because everything about it made you more aware of yourself.