I was looking for some simple songs to play on the guitar. A couple of websites suggested that John Denver's Country Roads should be easy, using some basic chords. While I was trying to play the chords, I was stuck on one line, "Take me home, To the place I belong".
I realized I have no such place, where I "belong". There is a city I grew up in. I lived there for 17 years. My parents still live there. But I clearly don't belong there. Then there is Pune, a city I did my engineering from. Great city. But not so great people, barring a few exceptions. I did not belong there. After that was Bombay. Good campus, amazing friends, learnt a lot, overall had a very good time. So is Bombay where I belong? And now I am in Hyderabad. So should it be Hyderabad?
But the people around you is what makes a place special/different. By this definition, none of the above places qualify. All my school friends and cousins have moved out of my hometown. I don't know my younger cousins, because I am not around them. So, the hometown is out. All my good friends from engineering are also not in Pune anymore. So, it is out too. Same is the case for Bombay. And my new friends in Hyderabad, are, as I said, "new". Its hardly been eight months.
So, where do I belong?
Or is it "Musafir hun yaaron, na ghar hain na thikana"?
Or maybe, I just have had too much coffee.
I realized I have no such place, where I "belong". There is a city I grew up in. I lived there for 17 years. My parents still live there. But I clearly don't belong there. Then there is Pune, a city I did my engineering from. Great city. But not so great people, barring a few exceptions. I did not belong there. After that was Bombay. Good campus, amazing friends, learnt a lot, overall had a very good time. So is Bombay where I belong? And now I am in Hyderabad. So should it be Hyderabad?
But the people around you is what makes a place special/different. By this definition, none of the above places qualify. All my school friends and cousins have moved out of my hometown. I don't know my younger cousins, because I am not around them. So, the hometown is out. All my good friends from engineering are also not in Pune anymore. So, it is out too. Same is the case for Bombay. And my new friends in Hyderabad, are, as I said, "new". Its hardly been eight months.
So, where do I belong?
Or is it "Musafir hun yaaron, na ghar hain na thikana"?
Or maybe, I just have had too much coffee.
For me it's always going to be where I grew up and where I spent my formative years. Even in my case, many of my friends have moved out of Pune (where I grew up), even my parents have moved out of the house where I grew up, but still whenever I am in Pune I get that sense of belongingness. Too lazy to write a bigger comment to elaborate on this, maybe we can chat about it at the lunch table. :)
ReplyDelete@Sandeep: Offcourse, formative years will have a big impact. But, are the school years more formative or college? We should definitely take the topic to the lunch table. :)
ReplyDelete