What does a city taste like after a sudden retreat? Where does it go, disappearing unexpectedly?
They
say its sounds will come back chirping at your windows in mornings when
you lie idle in bed. On evening walks in the terrace, listening to
Roshe, it comes out as tears, longing to hold you close. In dusty books
and clothes, that have turned a year without you knowing, it hides
carefully.
And then when you finally embrace it, the city behaves
like an elusive young woman, longing to be with you, yet playfully
putting its desire away. In small gallis and bylanes, in the pigeons
that huddle together on traffic islands, in the butter chai that
waziruddin ji serves in his small corner and the imam who lives in a
cozy little archway in the old masjid without the roof, the city waits
for you, yet does not show it.
How do you behave to a city that
isn't yours yet is yours? Everytime you walk away , you feel like
leaving a home that you are bound to come back to. A home thats always
yours no matter wherever you go. But how do you bid goodbye to a city
with the uncertainty of knowing that you may forever take leave?
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