So, this is what happens to me when I travel. I arrive, I take my time settling in, I explore a little bit, I figure out the bus system. The metro, if the place has one. I find a cafe I like. I find a restaurant that serves up a reliable lunch. A store where I can buy bread and fruit and milk. I fall in love with a street and a no-name park bench in a regular neighbourhood. I fall in love with the sky and the skyline and odd little bits that never make it to travel guides. I pick up words from the street and weave them in to my vocabulary. The maze of the city slowly begins to make sense. I begin to recognise patterns on the city map and I begin to see patterns in my day. I get very little sightseeing done. But the sounds, smells and everyday sights get under my skin. I begin to forget that I am travelling. I feel like this is where I live. I feel a physical ache when it’s time to leave. And I let a city break my heart all over again.
The ele smiles! (while he gets a good early morning scrub-down from his mahout.)
- At Sakkarebyle Elephant Camp, Shimoga, Karnataka, India
City love
Morning, shiny people. It’s Friday and the most interesting thing I’ve done all week is negotiate traffic across Bangalore city, in various degrees of exasperation. But then, all week, I’ve been thinking about cities. And what they do to me. How they affect my moods, my dreams and my longings. And that’s when I came across this blog post with this questionnaire on Tumblr. I found it very apt for my current state of mind, so I’m sharing my answers here and I urge you do do that too. :) Here goes:
I think a lot about cities and their personalities. I also tend to personify them. Please answer this questionnaire and share it, I would very much love to hear your city thoughts as well.
1. What city do you call home?
Bangalore. Currently Mysore. But in some inexplicable way, a part of my heart will always belong to Bombay - my home of four years.
