I wrote this on 18th February 2003. The one-year anniversary. I think it's a good start to the travelogue - Drops of water trickle down from the cold, hard ice and drip on the surface of flowing water, each drop making up a fiber of the possibilities. Drops turn into streams, streams to waterfalls falling from the heights of a mountain, refreshing life around it and moving on down to the plains of the land to make life beautiful. From the plains, it flows to a great ocean, where all things meet.
Finally, the air helps evaporate the water and help it go back to where it came from and where it should be.
Until now, my life has been like a river. It has flowed from the height of a mountain, where the weather is cold and the roots of trees grow strong and deep, down in to the plains where my river flowed for a long time. In between the plains, there have been breaks into other channels, other worlds from which I have gained a lot. From these channels, I think I have changed too, for good. The channel that I followed changed my thinking and when I came back to the plains, I found it hard to be happy and to adjust. My flow was irregular and even though I tried very hard and did have all the comforts in life, I couldn’t be happy. Maybe it was the channel where I wanted to be again that tugged at me – compelling me to follow that path in life.
Maybe this is a little confusing. Let me start again. I was born in the city where my grandparents have lived for over 25 years now – Dehradoon in India. ‘Dehradoon’ is made up of two words –“Dehra” and “doon”. The latter means a valley, since this place is situated in a valley among the not-so-tall mountains of the Great Himalayas. “Dehra” is just the name of the place. I still go to that house in Dehradoon whenever I can. I’ve enjoyed many weeks of my childhood there, playing cricket with my brother and the children who used to live around. I was born in Dehradoon, in the same hospital room as my brother, but my parents at the time were living in Chandigarh, the town that I prefer to call my hometown.
I have spent about 12 years of my life in that town. Chandigarh is a small town in the plains of North India, which happens to be the most organized city in India. What makes Chandigarh the most organized city in India is that it is divided into sectors. The city was designed by a Swiss-French city planner – Le Corbusier who planned the city in such a way that when one adds up two adjacent sectors, it forms a multiple of 13, making it simple to navigate through the city. For example, sectors 4 and 9 are located next to one another. Chandigarh is where my parents still live and where I have met some people who I know are going to be with me for the rest of my life. The mountains might be where I came from, but the plains are what gave me a beautiful life. I think the uniformity and structure of Chandigarh gave me the qualities of discipline and order.
In this journey from the mountains to the plains, I have lived in two other places – both of which have been ‘escapes’ from the usual event of things. First, my family moved to a place called Ferozpur in Punjab for 3 years. The house where I lived was extremely big! It was more like a plantation area with a house at the center rather than a residence. At this point of time, my father had an important position in the Government and was part of the team of officials who were supposed to handle terrorism in the area. This was during the 1980’s. Needless to say, my father’s job was a tough and dangerous one. He was mostly surrounded by security men because the situation at the time was extremely dangerous. Maybe that explains why he got such a big house to live in. Anyhow, this period of my life was spent either in school during the day, or at home. Considering the size of the place, this was perfectly okay with my brother and me! We could play and cycle around all the time and never get bored! Everything was fun within those walls. I never had the feeling of claustrophobia being at home. It was always my brother and I playing amongst us. My home in Ferozpur gave me freedom in life. It instilled in me the quality of self-exploration. I think the size of the place and freedom within certain limits gave me qualities of being happy inside, no matter how grave the situation might me outside.
After 3 years, my father had a change of posting. He was to go to England for a year to study advanced economics at the University of Manchester. Since we didn’t want to be away from each other for a year, we all planned to move there for a year. My brother and I got enrolled in school (I was only 7 years old) and my mother got a job as a bilingual teacher in another school. We had a most enjoyable year there. My brother and I loved school because it was very different and more enjoyable than school back in India. (Academics in India are much tougher than most countries, maybe with the exception of China.) Moving to another country at such a young age helped me adapt to situations and understand more about survival. My parents, from what I saw, were very happy there too. What I remember most clearly was a trip to Land’s End. It is the point at the southwest tip of England – the last sign of land for thousands of miles. I remember standing with my brother at the edge of a high cliff, pointing towards New York and having a picture taken by our father. I had made many good friends and even had a favorite teacher – Mrs. Grantham. The year passed quickly and I learned a lot of things - some which have changed me as a person and some that have placed qualities in me that not many people have.
We moved back to Chandigarh but obviously did make a trip to Dehradoon before settling in. I maintained contact (to this day) with Mrs. Grantham. She writes to me and I write back. This has been going on for more than 10 years now.
Life was beautiful in Chandigarh. But there was something missing. With all that I had in life, I felt the river of my life had stopped flowing. Living in one place has a charm of its own, but the feeling that one gets from traveling and seeing new places is something else. I was happy, but not completely satisfied. I think that is the reason why I have come so far from my home and have decided to study here in America. I remember when we first landed in America. It was at the JFK Airport, New York. The same place my brother and I had pointed to years ago in awe! It is said that all things that go, come around and I think there’s truth in that statement.
Now, I live near a beach. This is where my river has reached – the ocean. But, I’m sure this is not the end of my river. I think of my life at the ocean as a sea of opportunity. The water flows all over the world. There’s no telling where it might take me. There’s no telling when the air will evaporate me.
