(July 7, 00:53am)

I have settled down in Delhi.. but too occupied with work to spare time for writing..

But soon, I will give you the updates..

I miss Patna.. my home.. the river view from the cluster of windows at the living room.. and from mom's room.. the birds chirp..

It's a different world out here.. indeed, every city is different,.. and with it, the feel of life is different..

We say we belong to this country and that.. but in our hearts we know, we belong to this city and that.. it's the cities.. the cities have life.. the cities give you your identity..

XXX

(June 27, 11:56am)

It's drizzling in Patna.. and I have a train to catch in the evening.. Let's see, how I manage..

Yes, there's a sense of despondency to leave home.. this serene home where I have been living since 1999..

For the last seven years, however, I have lived here only irregularly.. as I joined ACJ, my journalism college, in 2009 and thereafter have taken up one job and other in newspapers and news agencies..

But the nostalgia is stronger than ever..

Nevertheless, I suppose I must overcome it through even stronger will power.. because, as we all know, luck is for the bravest..

And you need a lot of it in a competitive era like the present one..

XXX

(June 26, 8:10pm)

Last night in my Patna apartment.. leaving for Delhi tomorrow evening... and since it is a new job, I wouldn't be coming back for few months..

There's so many things to be done.. I haven't packed yet, but the clothes are all assembled..

XXX

Shahnaz Aunty, our neighbour, came with a plate full of Iftar delicacies to see me..

She's been sending us iftar for many years during Ramzan.. Mom loved those delicacies.. and I love them too..

XXX

It was a glorious sunset this evening.. I quickly clicked it and uploaded on Instagram.. the river has dried up when you look out from mom's balcony.. but it gives a view of a lake, which is equally tempting..

You can see the pic here.. https://instagram.com/p/4ZOXZ5w2lQ/?taken-by=anandobhakto

XXX

The heart is heavy.. I had been home for a long haul.. so there's a sadness settling in.. but I am hopeful the Goddess would find me a good house in Delhi..

Which matches to my mood that pines for quietness and space.. and trees... canopy of them, indeed..

XXX

(June 26, 00:10am)

Sloping, green roads on the foothills of chaste mountains.. against clear, serene sky.. and horse-ridden carriages hopping past the wilderness..

Can there be a more rousing sight that that?

XXX

When I watch old, English movies, where meadows and old cottages dot the landscape, I cannot tell you how much it beguiles me..

It reminds me of my station, it seems.. One, from which I have separated..

Will I ever, ever have a cottage in one such vast lands, where population is scarce and mountains and lakes abound?

With a beautiful cottage amid birds chirp, where I would be living with my many, many little children..

Who would demand of me various items, and I would go down to the city through the grassy fields in my carriage?

XXX

And now, please don't make fun of me.. Well, if that's how it beguiles my mind, I can't change it..

Goodnight..

XXX

(June 25, 00:23am)

When I was still in primary school, there was a film cold Rajkumar... The film quite did not interest me, but the Madhuri Dixit number was a big draw.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyODRpZH_5w

It had bombed badly at the box office, if I remember well.. but the attraction for Dixit, then a bigger star than any of the Khans, and the story of kings and princesses had kindled in me an irrepressible desire to watch it..

 But it was not the kind of movie I could ask Mumma to take me to.. No, I don't think there was anything avoidable in the movie per se, but this song with Dixit was a bold one..

XXX

I enjoyed Dixit, clad in a gown that offered a generous view of her belly and chest, in every frame... When she rolled in the floor against the carpet, with sea green lenses in her eyes, I would go berserk...

Sadly, they never played it on TV.. till I had forgotten about the whole affair.. and yes you guessed it right..

Today they did.. In this channel called Cinema TV.. but as luck would have it, it was already the time for climax..

And Dixit, unlike the promos in 1996, wore 'sensible' clothes.. I guess had it not been for that one song, I would have surely convinced mumma to take me to the theatres..

XXX

(June 25, 00:14am)

A very tiring day it was.. Woke up at 6:30 after only four hours of sleep and yet not retired to bed..

Since I would not be returning Patna till the end of the year, unless there is a flattering turn of luck, I got muma's yearly shraddh performed today..

Though the pooja was over by later afternoon, I went out for miscellaneous purchases, that are warranted before a long travel to another city...

Then in the evening I needed to go to the Ganges banks, to immerse the pooja remaining, an obligatory custom in the Hindu faith,..

XXX

In the late evening, after only a tea's break, I went to see a neighbour in the apartment next to ours.. she's an old acquaintance of mom, and has maintained cordial relations with us even in her absence..

She offered me copy and a plate full of different snacks.. After the gruelling day's work and a fasting for greater part of the day, I loath to have it..

I looked at the coffee with an annoying feeling and avoided it, till a request from her side left me with no option but drink it..

God, then it was a pleasant surprise.. It wasn't a hot one.. It was cold coffee and tastefully made.. Honestly, I quite loved it.. sometimes we form opinion without testing things,.. this holds true in so many other situations in life..

XXX

(June 23, 00:49am)

I went to meet Mrs Ghosh, muma's old time principal in college and family friend, this afternoon..

It was a quiet afternoon when clouds suddenly showed up all around like unsought guests... We were seated in one of her parlours in the first floor of the quaint duplex bungalow..

Across the grills at the other end of the wall, there were canopy of trees becokoning in into the chamber, while the rains poured vigorously..

I obliged her request for a vivid account of my professional affairs in the last one year, and she listened to it rather attentively, probably visualizing the high profile MEA events I attended, in the back of her mind..

XXX

I admire her a lot and she is pretty affectionate to me.. She inquired about my father too, though she has been more fond of my mother and does not really have a very high opinion about him..

Her only daughter, married with two teenager kids, had come to spend the long summers with her.. and it was only yesterday she took leave of her as her sons school reopened today..

The 80 something lady said she was feeling rather nostalgic and it was great that I had come to see her.. Among other things, we discussed literature..

And she is very fond of the subject although she had been a professor in History..

XXX