Tuesday, May 01, 2007

So I visit them again, the lanes and bylanes around the tech department, the lanes of my earnest youth. So I wander, drinking in and reveling in the ten degree difference in temperature and feeling lightheaded and free, oh why it must be the searing heat. That red brick building with a sloping roof and fine stone lattice, remnant of a long ago time, now no doubt a local government office or an archive for dusty old files, long forgotten. The neem tree that is strangely bereft of leaves with its crooked branches, how rich it looks against the brick and the fine work on the awning, but why didn’t I see this before? For the four and half years, so long ago, when I trudged to the other bus stop which had a better bus frequency, why didn’t I revel in the structure and the solidity, the space and freedom of proportion that these have been laid out with? The old walls around the collectorate have since been rebuilt but the pillars still stand strong, unmoving but witness to another time, why didn’t I see this before? As I try to separate the branches of the casurina and the tamarind that have intertwined over the years, I realize that sometimes you have to go away to come back.
You have to go away to be able to see.

11 comments:

Prerona said...

the consclusion reminded me of toto ... cinema paradiso ... dont tell me ur in my home town :( i'll kill you :(

Mystic Rose said...

you have to go away to see... truly.

and this passage evokes such strong memories of my own University.. the old, massive strong buildings wiht character, contrasting wite the newer shallow ones.. the shade under the huge trees, savoring the afternoon breeze under them.. :))

austere said...

ricer- my home town. but wait, maybe all hometowns have something about them...

mystic-:). the new very wannabe buildings, no soul at all, I tell you.

Anonymous said...

you have to go to come back..but you needn't comeback to see....i can see with my mind's eye..you have painted it so well. if I am right you have passed from your college through my hostel campus to the bus stop ...then how did you leave out the royal landmarks??

austere said...

shiv! trust you to catch me out on that one- I took the lanes through shanker tekri, lakdipul, jambuvad. Am doing hospital duty in the vicinity. :)

AmitL said...

Heh heh..yes,not sometimes,ALL the time,you have to go away to come back and be able to see....I see the faculty of Techo when I go to Baroda,and I wonder similarly- awesome building,heritage one,rather...but,back then,it was just musty corridors to enter,old design rooms which had fans too high,and other things to crib about.:)nice writing,as I said earlier....(Why'd u think aapki Reel le rahi hain, I wonder?:))

Anonymous said...

I loved the semi-last statement... sometimes you have to go away to come back....


Sathya`

austere said...

amit- you remember the architecture dept, that lovely stately and tremendous staircase? the soaring archs? and that imposing gate near metallurgy?

sathya- should be self- evident, I guess, but it is shocking to re-see for want of a better word.

mystic rose said...

metallurgy architecture... engineering was ur subject by any chance???

mine too! mine too!

austere said...

:)) nah a simble pharmacist, no engineering, math fazes me completely. apothecary. compounder.

mystic rose said...

apothecary.. almost an alchemist and not only with words.. :)