A 2-hr ride to 15 years ago...

I was on my way back home... I hadn't brought a book to keep me company on my 2-hr ride from ITPL to Vijayanagar... I sat and looked out the window... life was moving past at 10km/hr(may be not that fast! :-) )

There were houses everywhere - walls painted in shades of green, yellow, blue, white... some still needed the finishing and were just coated with grey cement. ..some of these were 2-storeyed or single-storeyed... or just a simple single floor building. In some distance, there were these huge apartments that overtowered these little dwellings... looking like little match boxes arranged carefully on top of each other... if the lowest were disturbed, the entire pack would collapse... And the roads - the traffic seemed to extend beyond the horizon. At the signal, the cars stood tightly packed and the 2-wheelers were snaking ahead through the gaps...

I closed my eyes to keep the smoke out and save them from burning!!!

Memories of the Bangalore of 15 years ago flashed in my mind... a sleepy little city with warm neighbourhoods... where we played on the streets and flew kites on the terrace... where it was possible to see the glorious sunrise on dewy mornings, where grand-parents and grand-children teamed up and went for morning walks on streets that were carpeted with red flowers of the gulmohar... where it was possible to see the blazing sunset as it receded into a velvety darkness... where the night skies were studded with twinkling stars... where power-cuts brought out candles and "Happy Birthdays" were felt while blowing out these candles when the power came back... of course, there used to be a race to blow out the candles :-) And we used to run a race to the shop at the corner of the street to buy hot bajjis and bondas for grandpa... where we could ride bicyles to school crossing hands while riding downslope under the shade of the huge gulmohars flanking the street, the cold breeze kissing our faces... no fear of getting run-over by cars or buses... no fear of strangers... where the houses along the streets were like "home" even to passers-by... with neat little compound walls and small, well-kept gardens...where impersonal towering buildings were a rarity... where it used to rain just when we were leaving school... where there were water-pumps and water-taps at street corners... where there were retailers who knew you and allowed you some loans too...(This is a rarity in this world of super markets;-))... where traveling between home and office took only about half an hour...

How can you explain when you miss someone when they are with you...?

I live here... and still miss you...Bangalore - my Home...