I wish this post had many more pictures – it would make things so much better and easier to capture. Especially when my mind goes back to the huge kadhai of gulab jamuns that I could just leap into. Aah life…
Meerut. Dusty Uttar Pradesh. Hick cowboy country. Loud. Surprisingly polite people – you wont guess it from the way they drive. Home. Correction – grandparents home – so better than home. Shastri Nagar. I lived here for a year in 1995. Familiar. Graciously and reassuringly unchanging.
I was tiny when I was here last. The walk to the end of the lane was long. Running an errand to the local market for grandma a chore. Getting to extra math lessons was a job. Now the same distances seem puny. Navigating the city seems easy and figuring out all the new construction is a breeze.
Still it’s a timeless place. The old book shop remains. You find a chappie selling kuhar wali chai on the street. The shopkeepers are so polite. The roads remain chaotic – I have been tacking this pothole for a decade that remains a crater despite repeated re-metalling. Its awesome how Mayawati manages that (and how in my head craters in UP = Mayawati’s duty).
At the same time change is very palpable. The ATM density is tremendous. There’s TATA Photon and 3G billboards everywhere, there are so many new schools, everyone wears jeans, there are so many more women on the roads – driving, riding, running business – it is amazing to see. And a reminder of how deprived childhood has been ;) 1995 seems such a generation ago.
Photos for next time. I need to go perambulate to digest my sweet binge. I seem unable to control myself when I enter a true blue halwai shop regardless of the time of day / state of my belly. The rasmalai and lassi and the gulab jamun to add to it… whew. Such good food man. Need to come back again with an emptier stomach. (oh wait – I packed some milk cake). Life is good.
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