These are the places I remember...

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Going back to a place you once knew intimately can be somewhat of an anticlimax. You take your expectations built on the promise of reminiscence with you and sometimes, these expectations sell you short, and you realize that some things are better relived in memory. Your time there has passed, and things will never be the same again.

Ranchi, the place where I spent my childhood, and most of my teen years, holds some amazing memories for me. And yet, returning to it, long after my friends and family have left, casts a shadow on these memories somehow, simply because I no longer feel like I belong. Ranchi and I seem to have bid our farewells long back and have now become somewhat of strangers through long years of separation. 

Chennai was grand. I broke almost every rule in my parents’ book and lived out the wild child in me. I made friends for life out there, and wrapped around myself enough stories to keep my grandchildren entertained in some distant future. Every time I return to it, it feels like meeting an old friend, albeit one that is impatient to move on after pleasantries have been exchanged. Chennai is still grand. Despite the annoyance of haggling with autowallah’s, and the humidity which makes me feel like I’m inhaling water instead of drinking it, it still feels like home. If not anything else, the language binds me to it, along with many secrets that the city and I share.

Bangalore will always be the place I love, insanely so. But from a distance. It has taken away much, and it has given me a lot too. Long story, that...

But Pune remains the place that my feet turn towards, wherever I may be. Like right now. If home is where the heart is, then that’s where my heart lies, awaiting my return. I don’t as yet know Pune the way I used to know Ranchi, with all its little nooks and crannies, but maybe that’s why I like it so much...because there’s still much to be discovered, much to be learned, and much more to be loved.

*sigh* I want to go home...

And now, just because I feel like, I’m going to list out all the other places I’ve been to, right from Khandala, where I spent a little less than a day, to London, where I spent a year. They have all added, in some subtle way, to the person that I am today. So, here goes...Jamshedpur, Patna, Hazaribagh, Monghyr, Netarhat, Cuttack, Rourkela, Calcutta, Indore, Hyderabad, Chittorgarh, Delhi, Agra, Chandigarh, Shimla, Mahabalipuram, Trichy, Thirunelveli, Nazareth, Palayamkotai, Coimbatore, Vellore, Kodaikanal, Pondicherry, Cochin, Ernakulum, Allepey, Panchgani, Mahabaleshwar, Matheran, Lonavala, Khandala, Bombay, Nagaon, Goa, London, Ceylon, New York, Northampton, Boston, Connecticut, Fremont, San Francisco...

Ok, not a terribly impressive list, but I plan to keep it growing.

Until then, these are the places...