We all look for it
A proverbial ‘happy place’
A place where
One can be oneself
One can find yourself
One learns to look
At self and world differently
In the life’s roller coaster ride
There is always one place, one city
Where you know
You are safe
Not just because of people
But in spite of people
You step out
And the breeze simply seems
To blow to carry away your worries
Making breathing easy
The green canopies and flowering trees
Waft of filter coffees and dosas,
The flower fragrances
Aromatically you are home too
You may not have roots here
But it lets you grow and rediscover
Your own forgotten self and dreams
Though the traffic is traumatic
It soothes your trauma
Bangalore, what else do I say?
I literally got my second life here
After that near fatal accident
The neurologist too humoured me
With a local humour which is mild and raw
But punches do land
No wonder stand ups thrive here
The city where startups are often born to die
In a shortest span of time
People know how to pick themselves
Where uber drivers too have tales
Of bad investments and losses
You taught me to pick myself up too
Many years ago and later now
I find my broken self here in the bookshops
In science spaces and conversations
Where people still assert
While respecting boundaries
They listen, they let you have the mic
This city feels like my happy place
I can be anyone here
Educator, poet, archivist, traveller
Storyteller, photographer, reader, writer
And be them all at once too
Mankind consists of all kinds
But I always find more of my kind
In this good old charming city
(Which is fast losing its charms)
To which I keep returning to
With my scars and bruises
To my utter surprise
People call me a healer
That’s how we just heal each other
With conversations over cuppas
Of filter coffees or walks
Undramatically, unknowingly
A calm city which is no hurry
To be smart, fast or the best
Maybe hostile and unwelcoming to some
But then we all need to
Find our happy and safe space
Which lets us be…our unapologetic self
MK
