Someplace Else

The last one week has been surreal, as I jolted between the past and the present, as I tried to make sense of the city and its people I had left behind nine years back, as I wondered if it was me who has moved on or it was the place that has remained stuck in time.

It was still the same place I called home…

But the people have changed: the naughty boy I hung out with ever since I was three and who christened me all sorts of unflattering nicknames is all grown up as we finally met after nine years; the sweet girl who struggled with maths is now struggling with men; the pretty girl who was the heartthrob in school is now married proudly showing off her sindoor; the ambitious girl who wanted to go places is now getting used to being a mom; the skirtchaser with a heart of gold who dated all the hot women in college is repeating the same old stories as we get drunk (well, some things never change)…

My parents were still the same as they argued with me, annoyed me with complicated excel sheets, tried to convince me to get married and argued some more…

But the city showed signs of poriborton (change) if only at a very superficial level: the new government was playing around with COLOURS, as they painted the buildings and walls white and blue; the metro now gave the peak hour Mumbai local a run for its money; the weather played hide and seek as the scorching afternoons gave way to stormy evenings as I ran for cover outside the Park Hotel, a little high, a little happy and mostly nostalgic…

The delicacies have remained as mouthwatering as ever as I binged on puchka, Arsanal’s biryani, Badshah’s chicken roll, mishti doi and suddenly appreciated mom’s cooking which I usually dismissed as bland hospital food…

But it also reminded me how much I have changed: that I no longer belonged here, that Calcutta is my past and even though I don’t know my future, even though I am tied to the city, even though I had the best childhood here, it was not the place where I wanted my kids to grow up…

It was Someplace Else…