The art of leaving

Leaving a place you called home for nearly a decade, is not easy.   Possessions and memories coexist in bountiful abundance.  It is amazing how you begin to notice little things about your world, that you hitherto took for granted, when there is an expiry date attached. A pomegranate tree laden with luscious crimson fruit in a far corner of the apartment garden, which makes you feel almost guilty for not having noticed it before. The way the morning sun drenches your living room in a buttery golden light, that gives it an almost ethereal tinge. A pencil mark on a bedroom wall indicating your child’s height, when he was still at that delicious age where you could carry him around; the way a little apartment  housed our joys and sorrows, our hopes and fears, our little rituals of sustenance, our little indulgences and pleasures.

Bangalore for me, will always be a special place where I was privy to my child’s wonder years, where I learnt the art of leaving behind the dispiriting  ‘why’s’  and ‘what if’s’ and befriending  the elusive “why not’s’.  

I leave behind a bit of myself here, as I prepare to discover a whole new world, learn new things and more importantly be willing to unlearn old ways; for as Joseph Campbell quoted  “We must be willing to let go of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

‘Home’ from now on, is the lovely coastal city of Chennai and I look forward to this leg of the exciting journey called life.