East Coast

My earliest memory of this east coast city was that of roughly 8 years ago. Life was very different then. I’ve heard people say that all the cells in our body get replaced in like 7 years, and turns out this is false. It would have been cool if this was true though. Anyway, this was my fourth visit to the city. 

The first visit was more of a touristy visit even though a lot was going on, the question of ‘what next?’ was in my head. The next visit was a pleasant outcome of the ‘what next?’ question of the previous visit. And these were quite memorable two days, with a lot of chaos which seem amusing today. I got a bruise, my father’s first flight(he called the plane - a city bus), I lost my mother’s phone, the first trip of us four.

My third visit was in the middle of the pandemic, right before the second wave and we were grieving the loss of our dear Mili. This time, with the assurance of technology aka Google Maps, I ventured out on the streets of the city. And to my surprise I managed to accomplish my task comfortably. I remember not wanting to eat on my own, something which still bothers to this day.(I type this after eating three large cookies all by myself on NYE)

Now, onto my latest visit, I have mixed feelings about this city and I think I will associate it with my professional life more than my personal life. I ventured out in the lanes of this bustling city once again, I witnessed monsoon in the middle of November, I had the highest number of mosquito bites, I got to see the sunrise and the wonderful night at the beach under the moonlight with my favourite songs playing in my ears(this was bliss).

I got to see many different sides of me, I pushed my limits in a good way. I did my best to not hold myself back. I let myself shine when I wanted to shine. And the one thing I wasn’t expecting was to find someone who could make me feel good in an intellectual way. I think a lot and I feel a lot. And in recent times, my intellectual side was sort of confined to only exams. (I actually had a friend with whom I used to have good conversations, but we don’t talk anymore, by my choice). Anyway, I enjoyed having conversation with this person and there were times I did not want the conversation to end, mostly because I knew that we wouldn’t get time once we get back to our Karmbhoomi. Now, we have different views on many things in life but it was good to maybe see the other side, otherwise in this age of social media one tends to get stuck in an echochamber. And I hope I continue to have such conversations as long as we can. But I know that life will make it work as per its own convenience. 

And special mention to the time I played basketball, I am better than I expected I would be. I also reinforced my beliefs that it is easier for me to write than talk, I can talk okay but I write good. Then there was my interaction with Urdu, I think I enjoyed someone(commoner) else’s work(poetry) after a long time. And, honestly I felt relieved to find stuff that I like. Otherwise, social media is filled with content( in my opinion, mediocre stuff) which people like. And I feel bad that stuff like that gets more appreciation than the stuff which I like. Yes, yes, I am thinking highly of myself and my taste. 

This time, I bought souvenirs at the beach to remind me of the good time that I spent there. Its strange, I always wished my home city would have a beach. And now my Karmbhumi is a beach city and I’ve hardly visited the beach here. And back in the east coast city, I visited the beach multiple times and I think I’ll remember all those visits with a smile on my face. And on the penultimate day of my stay, I got to see the smallest botanical garden which seemed nothing but a maze to me. And as that maze of a garden came to an end, my long stay in the city also came to an end. There was drama, there was excitement, there was cheer, there was hope, there was pain, there was grief and I wish there were tears too.I can close my eyes and see myself walk on the last night, being exhausted yet not wanting to rest, cause I knew that I’d not get time like this where there was nothing much on my mind for a long long time to come. 

Until next time.

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