Guest Blog : Why and Where

So just like all the famous people across the internet have a guest blogger, I have a guest blog today. It is a beautifully written expression of a place and what that word "place" mean. In all honesty this was written by one of my friends and not intended for publishing. But I begged and cajoled (not a lot... just a little) and asked this friend to chronicle it. The friend's reply was why don't you? Although I doubt if it was serious  I am still going to take it seriously.

Also I think I might ask people to contribute their ideas on some topics related to Kolkata here. The only problem being, I don't know many people. Uhh Well!!!!! Let me stop blabbering now and just post the piece. Here goes.

Why and Where

Relevance of a place, sometimes takes a life-time to discover. For some of us, some places we have stayed in hold relevance in terms of money and matter. For some, there strings a deep emotional tie. For some, there could be a bitter memory that stays, and for some it is just a mere place to lead their everyday life.

Ever since we take our first step, life goes into a running mode with a set sequence of events following one another. Learning, earning; doing something to make a mark, no matter how small. What we do forget in this race is the relevance of the places we pass through in this process. What would happen if these places did not exist? Logical answer would be that we would end up at some other place. The word PLACE thus, does hold relevance. Come to think of it, I myself had never thought in this regard as well till about a few days back.

My place of concern here is my birth place. The state capital of West Bengal, India. Kolkata (previously Calcutta). Ever since birth, I too fell into the daily running to learn and later earn. Though life has taken me to and through several places for varied reasons, now that I look back, had Kolkata not been there, would my life still be the same? Would I have ever learnt riding a bicycle had I not held my father’s forefinger and learnt balancing on two wheels in the lanes of Lansdowne (Sarat Bose Road). Would I learn to make friends like I do, had my baby steps not made their way to the group of children who I first made friends with? Would my childhood stories be the same as they are, had they not been in Kolkata? These are strange but relevant questions, for me at least, now that I retrospect.

What does leave marks about a place are the most relevant events that occur while being there. For me Kolkata, in that regard was a place of loss. Mostly, in terms of people close. What I did not look at is that the sense of loss came after I had learnt to love and adore selflessly. What I do now realize is that it is this city, which has again given me a chance to walk ahead in life.

I had hardly seen a Kolkata night, till about a few days back. Rather, I had seen it from eyes of a skeptic. All it took was the perspective of another set of eyes, which saw life even in hallows of hell. These eyes showed how beautiful this city can be, and what makes it so beautiful. These eyes had seen losses, some large, yet the city was still beautiful to them for many more reasons. They taught me to look up and look into those reasons. They showed me so much in such short time, that I had not seen in a life time. These eyes showed me what makes a place bad or beautiful is me myself. The eyes that were so lovely themselves, right there in my city. 

From – Devil Reloaded