Anwesha Chowdhury is a music teacher and musician whom I’ve known for about a year or so on Facebook. While the friendship has yet to cross over into the real world, she does have a good ear and is a very talented individual as I hope what you’re about to read below will prove. I saw this posted on her Facebook about an hour ago and it made me so emotional that I asked for permission to use it as a guest post for my blog. Anwesha agreed and so here it is!
Since we all treat Facebook like a blog, I thought I'd pen down
something I felt on my walk today.
Recently I've been seeing posts with "The only thing to do in
Kolkata is leave", "Kolkata is a trash city", etc etc. At times
I laugh at this, tell my friends -ei sohor tar are kichu hobe na,(This city
is dead, there is nothing that will happen in this city) while I dream of
building a future here myself.
I've had many, many people asking me why I want to stay here, gotten
offers from around the country. My family is here, my sister shifted back here,
my better half is here, all the kids I've gotten so attached to over the years,
they are all here. All of this is a part of why I'm still here, but you know
why else? This is where I first sat with a group of older dadas when I was in
class 10 and they told me, “Kid you need to listen to Dream Theater". This
is where I had my first heartbreak that made me want to express through music.
This is where I cycled around the city with my friends, while my mom thought
I'm roaming the streets of Jadavpur. This is where I met my first music
teacher, who I still look up to today. This is where I had countless shopping
dates with my sister, only to buy chips lol. This is where I acted like a clown
in school trying to get people to laugh, and acted emo with others to get them
to call me weird. This is where I walked through the streets of Gariahat
looking at toys I really wanted, too scared to ask my mother for anything. This
is where I walked into the metro station alone for the first time going to
Dumdum to my boyfriend's house. This is where my sister threatened to tell my
mother about some guy I liked as a kid, if I didn't buy her chocolates every
day, and I obliged with my pocket money. This is where I got wet in the rain
for 3 hours with the boy who's now my boyfriend, too scared to tell each other
we liked the other.
This is the city I loved in, I fought in. The city that gave me friends,
I never talk to (sorry about that). The enemies I made up with. Gave me the
family I hate and I love. The boyfriend I despise most of the time but love
more than I love anything. This is the city that let me become the person I am
today. Yes, the city is horrible at times, but it is where I built my dreams.
This is the city that built me. This is not just about Kolkata; this is about
my hometown. I'm forever indebted to my hometown for making me the person I am.
I think it applies to any of you and whichever city you are from as well.
And someday I hope I can become a person, in this old dingy city, happy
with the little money I made knowing that I made a few children believe in
their dreams and played a little part in building it.
Translations and NB:
1.
Dada- term of respect for someone older than you in
the Bengali language, used to refer to a male. Didi is the female equivalent
2.
Jadavpur and Gariahat are areas in the city of
Kolkata
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