I have become a queer mixture of the East and the
West, out of
place, everywhere, at home
nowhere.
Jawaharlal Nehru
FLYING HOME
I meticulously stitch time through the embroidered sky,
through its unpredictable lumps and hollows. I
am going home once again from another
home, escaping the weave of reality into another
one that gently reminds and stalls.....
But what talk of soul and skin
in this day and age, such ephemeral things......
What talk of flight time and flying
when real flights of fancy are crying
to stay buoyant unpredictably in mid-air
amid pain,peace, and belief: just like thin air..... .
Sudeep Sen
After
4 and a half months in the land of my birth, months spent complaining
endlessly about uneven pavements( only a giraffe or a camel can
negotiate these with ease!), a generally cavalier attitude to safety,
chaotic even dangerous traffic especially the 2 wheelers, from a
place where with a cacophony of sounds: the hourly well attended crow
convention, the ear splitting cell phone chats of so many invariably at
night, the various days firecrackers exploded to celebrate Dashera,
Diwali, weddings etc, the many cars that drive at top speed through our
little lane,mostly the wrong way up our one way street, the students at
Ruia College talking oh so loudly on their mobiles, practising for an
Inter-Collegiate 'Disco' music programme, then for a street play
protesting the abysmal treatment of women ; to a place where an
all
pervasive silence reigns, more pets
than people are
to be
seen, splendid and huge parks exist with hardly anyone in them,
traffic rules are observed, safety is generally accorded respect,
encounters with various government agencies are pleasant and require no
additional clout: a difference for sure........
For
Bombay, though changed these past few decades and mostly for the worse,
is still a city where I have so many linkages; especially KEM hospital
where I spent 2 happy days each week with residents from Akola,
Amravati,Sangli, Yeotmal, places the Express train does not deign to
stop at! Their eager faces, keenness to learn, their interest in the
larger world, the wonderful case conferences and seminars, the
astounding clinical pathology, their analysis of them often influenced
by the MRI scans they have seen! Then the Adult Education English class a
total delight , the 90 minutes passing like seconds, Shanthi Kurien,
the volunteer coordinator and teacher for 6 years, an angel if there
ever was one....
So
many friends met, so many books/movies/political essays read/written
and argued about! A few notable seminars attended, meeting Anjali
Monteiro another rare individual, her students at the Tata Institute of
Social Sciences, superb with their cinematic inquiry about
Bombay/Mumbai and how it has been transformed by the anti-
Muslim pogroms of 1992-93, listening to John Dayal, passionate and clear
about the plight of Christians in Orissa, Harsh Mander outlining how an
anti-communal violence bill presently languishing in parliament
might restrict mass massacres,Javed Anand and Teesta Setalvad in for the
'long haul' to try get justice for victims of the far too many
massacres that have occurred these past 3 decades, hearing Rudi Heredia
discuss the society and its need to pursue justice, the Indo-Palestine
Solidarity forum where an
American participant Paul
Larudee was
deported some time later from India( the long reach of Zionists and
their
friends)....
So
many troubling events: the state funeral accorded Bal Thackeray, the
horrific rape in Delhi, the murder of young Muslims by police in Dhule,
the execution of Afzal Guru, the promotion of Narendra Modi as possible
Prime Minister, the accelerated looting of the resources of Adivasis and
so much more....
And
so Westwards to a country I have lived in for over 4 decades with
its unique blend of smugness, ignorance and arrogance, its militarism
and determination to be top dog for as long as possible.... I come out
of of the "Customs and Border Security" area where I waited for more
than an hour to clear immigration, then meet a supercilious Customs
official who oblivious to my 14000 mile journey and 20 hour flight has
me lift my 3 admittedly heavy bags onto an xray scanner. Exit the hall
to a place where too I have links, personal and professional,some going
back 4 decades and because of them oddly enough this too, is
home.
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