Ranchi, Oh Ranchi

Finally, this visit to my hometown Ranchi is over and frankly speaking, it wasn't too eventful. Even though, it started pretty well, it ended up just being a shadow of my previous visits to Ranchi. When I alighted from train at Ranchi Junction, I was quite enthusiastic having spent a night with a beautiful RJ (before your mind starts racing, I should clarify that we were sharing same compartment). Well why did I mention it? Maybe after getting into IIT, my sparse encounters with pretty girls have become worth mentioning. Moving on, as I stated the vacations had a nice beginning; watching Talaash in a newly opened multiplex, wandering on the streets with my best pal Swapnil, a nostalgic visit to my old school (DPS, Ranchi) and my not so expected lunch with Shruti (considering her reluctance at previous occasions ) did certainly give me moments to cherish. But, unfortunately most part of my trip remained dismal. With most of my friends absent, the idea of having fun in the city seemed non-realistic. I thought this would give me more opportunities to explore certain productive avenues. However, thanks to my untimely illness, which ended up ruining more than half of my vacation, I couldn't pursue them too. In my convalescence, I soon succumbed to my dull ways of whiling time watching anime. By the time I recovered, Swapnil had already ditched me (I mean figuratively, what I intended to mean was he had left Ranchi.) and thus devoid of any hope of enjoyment I stuck to my laptop and passed reminder of my holidays. 

A random mobile snap

Being at the height of ennui, I decided to take a trip round the city admiring the idiosyncrasies of a town that expanded in a haphazard manner. Amid ubiquitous sights of construction you can always find a picturesque location, carefully preserved from that universal race of modernisation, which offers serenity by its existence and anxiety about its persistence in continuously transforming landscapes. In all this, I noticed two other things that have been oblivious to me earlier. First, how small Ranchi is; earlier I never really cared about how huge other cities are or maybe Ranchi in herself was big enough for me to bother about it, but now it was evident that Ranchi is too small for me not just on a physical scale but philosophical too(my dreams need a bigger sky). Second, this is a fact I was deliberately avoiding to acknowledge, I no longer feel same sense of belonging that I used to feel for my city. As a matter of fact, I feel a sense of detachment; maybe I had enough of her. 

Now as the end is near, at most couple of more years, I finally decided to bid farewell to you before I get too occupied. You sheltered me for 19 long years and have been my home ever since I gained enough consciousness to recognize a place as home. You have witnessed my first day at school at D.A.V. and the last at D.P.S., my first words in a cradle and my first speech in school's auditorium, my first walk and my first flight as I cleared JEE. You saw me laugh, cry, love, live, fall and rise as you yourself rose from a small town to a capital city. You have been a mother's lap, a kid's toy and a beloved's arm; I hope you won't be a dead man's veil. I know it’s too early to bid a farewell, there are few more years, but I doubt I'll get an opportunity to be so exhaustive with my emotions ever again, and moreover it’s better to say it early than never. Goodbye Ranchi, here we part as I seek a new abode.