Shillong Calling

I grew up in Shillong often referred to as the Scotland of the East. Ever since I moved out of for my education and then a job I have lived across most metros in India - Chennai to start, then to Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai for a brief time, a couple of years in Kolkata and then Delhi.

My job took me places and during the first few years of my career I found myself waking up in a new town every other day. I got busy, enjoyed the frills that a metro life had to offer, squeezed out time to explore each of them but I never seem to connect to this life that I was living. 

The tin roofed cottage that I had lived in, the polished wooden floor, the fireplace, the smell of pine, the garden in front often call me back. Growing up in a hills has its own charm, small cities in which you can practically reach from one end to the other in half an hour. A few climbs and you are away into the jungle, pick cones from the ground and practice a few catches. So many a times we would have full fledged cricket matches with a log and pine cone. The polluted air in the city I live today (Delhi) lead me to ask the question if it was all worth.

We had enough time, we would sit down and allow our thoughts to wonder. Moments such as these are something we often long today but with all the distractions and screens around we have forgotten the process to reflect and gain clarity. We are in the age of finding solution instantly and as a generation have lost patience. 

The comfort the hills provide draws me to submission, what would I have done had I not grown up in the hills.