I made this painting by sticking a layer of newspaper with painter's tape on the wall of my childhood bedroom to create a makeshift easel. There's a citrus fruit from Maharashtra called mosambi locally; it’s also known as Citrus limetta and Sweet lime in the West. I grew up eating mosambi; it tastes like honey, is slightly tangy, and very fresh—much like the perfect glass of cold lemonade in fruit form. In January 2023, I visited India after being away for five years. I had thought a lot about eating a mosambi during my time away from India. When I returned, it was the first thing I did. The mosambi I ate tasted like everything I thought it would—like relaxation, a sigh of relief, warmth, like eating a piece of the sun. I also spent part of my trip staying at a family friend's house in Goa (Goa is a small coastal state in North India known for its beaches and art/party culture). The house I stayed at had a grapefruit tree in the backyard. Indian grapefruit or Pomelo isn’t like the grapefruit found in North America at all. It’s much larger and has a green outer layer, below which lies a thick, white, rubbery protective layer, and finally, at the core, lie beautiful peachy-pink wedges of citrus. When pulled apart, these wedges separate into thin globular strands that contain juice. It tastes sweet, textured, not too sour, with a little bitterness at the end. My grandfather used to eat a pomelo with salt every night while watching TV; in Sindhi, we call the fruit Papnis. Every morning in Goa, I spent time sitting in the house's sun-drenched garden and eating an entire grapefruit. When I finally returned to my childhood home in Mumbai, I created this piece using oil pastels from the local market and some navy blue acrylic paint. I shared this painting with a family friend whose house I stayed at in Goa. She glanced at it and immediately said, “This is Goa!” The painting now hangs in the kitchen of her Goa home, facing the garden with the pomelo tree