In between Worlds

I am inundated with a maelstrom of conflicting emotions today. For starters, I am at a loss for what to write about especially in view of the fact that there is just so much to write about, be it the Egyptian revolt against Mubarak or the ongoing India-Bangladesh cricket World Cup! Perhaps, I will focus less on the newsy stuff. I am feeling rather nostalgic today. I do think that memories - and good ones - are sometimes those that provide us the strength to undertake our journey through the future. Today, my note is going to center on nostalgic thoughts and memories. But before I venture into my discourse, I should pose you a question: Has there been a time when you have felt like you were sandwiched between two worlds and rather unrelentingly so? Have you felt like those two worlds were strangely similar at some levels yet starkly contrasting to each other at other levels? I did.

Until my move to the sunlit world of California, London and Mumbai were two of my most favorite cities the world over. London still is. The world of London is a variegated blur, which swims through the recesses of my inward eye at a dizzying speed. What empowers - or sometimes exacerbates that sensation - is the book I am currently writing - a psychological and investigative media thriller set in London. Its effects on my nostalgia for London arises from the compulsion of London-centric research associated with its central theme and most of its scenes. Furthermore, attending the Mary Poppins musical in New York recently brought back fond memories of my days in England, while watching the Gnomeo and Juliet flick today harked me back to those days as a teenager when the influence of Shakespeare's works on my lyrical aspirations and fantasies was powerful, be it Lady Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet or The Tempest, one of his finest allegories in my view.

In contrast, the world of Mumbai has been a space of existential temporality - a defined and ruggedly bordered space, which notwithstanding the luxuries, comforts and homepsun warmth that lay at my disposal as a senior executive in a prolific MNC, left me homesick for the egalitarianism and cosmopolitanism that infused much intellectual, social and cultural enrichment in the world of that past - London.

California is a third place to add to that repertoire, though my tryst with her has been recent. Her cheerful sunshine, outdoorsy spirit and coastal splendor - and not to mention, the seductive Californian wines - do not fail to charm you.

I am no longer in a space of existential temporality. In time, California will grow on me too, etching in me an affinity that would simmer with an intensity similar to that for London