Bhai kitne baar jaayega tu Nagpur😊?
Given a choice, i would love to travel to Nagpur every month atleast for a day of two. Atleast till I can manage to do that on my own. And during each such visit i would definitely go atleast once to the place where I grew up from an infant to a young adult. The place where I spent 23 years of my formative life. The place where I spent maximum number of years with my first blood - my raison d etre - my parents and my sibling. The place which gave me the most lasting of friendships which were destined to be and i had no choice in choosing them. The place where I was never judged for what I was born as or for what I had done with my life till then. A place where the only tags attached to me were pet names given by my family and friends.
Every other subsequent place where I spent rest of my life as an adult, have been a place of my choice but still none can measure up to the charm and appeal of the quaint little place where time stands still for me. A place where I can smell and feel my childhood and adolescence.
That's the only place on earth where I can visualise my parents as being fully capable and incharge of their surroundings, and not being dependent on any third person for their own needs, as it had been towards the fag ends of their lives. A place where I saw my father as a hero who as the sole bread earner could handle any situation in his inimitable cool as a cucumber style and my mother as a home maker who perfected the art of running the household economy in minimum resources and yet not making us aware of the limitations she faced in walking the tight rope. Two very capable persons who ensured that I got the best of what any average child in the neighborhood could get. And the place also gave me the pride of being the younger sibling to a super achiever sister whose accolades (curriculum as well as co-curriculum) were always a source of joy for the entire family.
These moorings bring me back to the place again and again. And during each such visit I can sense the good old days still hovering around the place as if untouched by time.
To put in a somewhat poetic style - "Meri rooh yaha basti hain"😊
