Ocean Of Memories

Hitting twenty and with the realization that my teenage years are finally over and hopefully with them the most turbulent years of my growing up and coming of age would end, but I was wrong cause little did I realize that the most turbulent and formative years are yet to come. They say the first five years for a child are most important cause it determines the behavioral aspects of the child’s nature in the same way the first five years after hitting twenty that is from twenty till you are twenty five are again the most important cause in those five years what you do determines where you will be in your years to come. The nature in which the five years are spent is the same, that is in forming your future but the only and main difference in them is that in the first five years of your life you have your parents to help you with just about everything but in years after twenty you are on your own with your parents beside you only for guidance.
Life has been a roller coaster with changes coming in the most unexpected of times. These twenty years have left an ocean of memories, there is simply so much to recall and learn from that Im not left with a moment wherein Im not thinking and contemplating. Location wise I have made one full circle, staying just half a kilometer away from the house where my remembrance begins with the defining years of my childhood, but as the location life is not a full circle and as I believe it can never be. Life has so much to offer that it cannot be lived even in a lifetime; the different aspects, situations and dimensions are some times mind boggling. Moving away from the wonderful years I had in Surya Enclave was difficult and often as every human I yearned to go back to them and I still do but not without the realization that it is the past, that time is gone, move on and let go of the past. But at that time it was not only moving away from Hyderabad, it was also moving away from the people who mattered the most to me combined with the separation from my cocoon and starting of afresh in an alien place which was by birth my hometown but a place whose language I didn’t speak and till date fumble with. The four years in Surya Enclave is still fresh in my head as if it had taken place just the other day and not seventeen years ago. I cannot pin point to any incident and say that it has been the most significant one cause there are a series of incidents which have made me what I am today. From being spoilt silly by grand parents and parents alike, to having the run of the terrace in the cool evening air which I still love doing, climbing up the Gunrock hill which sadly doesn’t stand anymore and trying to run down the same hill in my impatience rather than safely sliding down resulting in my landing up in a ditch all cut up and bruised, being the outstanding student of my class and the teacher’s pet, wrestling with Dad on weekends with our shouts and squeals of laughter echoing throughout the then vaguely occupied neighborhood, waiting for him to come back from his night shifts, running back into my parents room with the pillow in hand cause of Dadu’s snoring, introduction of star network in India and watching late night horror movies, to playing hide-n-seek with Bama and even causing her to faint once cause she couldn’t find me and thought that I had been kidnapped by the banana seller during the communal riots when all the while I was hiding behind the main door, are a whirlpool of memories. My attachment to Hyderabad is not because I was born here but due to the wonderful times I have had here. This place has given me my identity, friends, lessons of life, basically just about everything and moving out to Bengal wasn’t easy. Shifting was natural to me but not adapting to a place which didn’t really welcome me with open arms. Acceptance didn’t come easily either with the tag of being an outsider in my hometown. But all the same Bengal doled out its own share of lessons to be learnt in life. It was there that I developed a love for traveling, exploring new places, experiencing the rustic country side of India, watching nature at its prettiest. I also overcame my inhibitions in trying out something new and learnt to be more adaptable to situations and circumstances in life. My love for sweets became more prominent and due to that Im still called an ant!!! But nevertheless I was glad to get back to Hyderabad, though half way through my academic year I shifted I couldn’t contain my excitement and live the city of Nizams which I so loved. Ever since then I have been in Hyderabad relishing every moment of my stay here but now I want to go out and explore what other places have to offer. Bangalore was enticing enough for me to explore every way to stay back over there or right now get there or to some place as challenging and enticing as Bangalore after my graduation. My love for Hyderabad hasn’t reduced in any way but after living in the same place for seventeen years, the place tends to grow onto you and for a person like me who cannot tolerate a boring routine its too long a time to live in one place and I would like a change. Hopefully next year this time I will be in a new place ready to face the challenges of that place and life there while looking back at my time in Hyderabad and thinking that Hyderabad was a boulevard of fulfilled and relinquished dreams.