Wednesday, January 31, 2007

city life...

the past weeks brought with them a fair share of everything...nostalgia, remorse, angst, fear, fatigue, exuberance, joy...all these emotions manifested the feelings inside of me...here i sit, trying to put down in words the feelings and the emotions that encompass me, and i know not whether i do a fair job or not.
what if there was no language? what if words never existed? how would we express ourselves?
...some would say art...some would say expressions...but i still prefer words. without words, i would be hopelessly lost!!

*

one of the most soothing and calming experiences of the last two weeks was the early morning ride in the rickshaw from my aunt's to the ST station through the walled/old city of Ahmedabad...half past six in the morning, darkness that preludes dawn still hanging around, the people slowly awakening...the children all ready in their school uniforms making their way to school, the small shops opening up for yet another day of business...
"the daily grind of life slowly churning itself."
...the smell of freshly baked bread lingering on in the air, the cock crowing and the birds stirring in their nests; and amidst all this there was this guy sitting in a rickshaw passing by and observing all this...

i love the old city of Ahmedabad...the new sprawling cosmopolis and it's so called cosmopolitan inhabitants may not be too dear to me. but the old city makes up for all that the new one lacks...

the old city with its small enclosed spaces, narrow by lanes, the gentry and the seemingly small-time existence of the gentry is so far away from the mega malls and flashy crowd that throws up an attitude of apathy for most things except for those that are fashionably and sociably correct and happening...i belong to the new city...and yet, i love the old city. the new city is all about living it right. the old city is life.

...tamaru ne maaru, aa che aapnu amdavad...

4 comments:

Kishley (Dolly Sapra) said...

There is always some place where you can find a rythm with yourself :) i think the old city of ahemdabad is yours..

And i believe too, in the power of words.. emotions may not register themselves with everyone around but words always do :)

Nachi said...

Kishley: words certainly are a powerful medium of expression...

and yes, the rhythm; there are times when you get tired of the fast paced music...and that's when its time to change the record!!

Gordon van den Heever said...

Hey Naartjie!

What is wrong with you. Expressing yourself by a medium called words.......Hmmmmmmmm, well, did you turn gay now?

Ja whatever.....! India are definately getting their asses kicked in 2 months time in the Caribean bru....I just going to feel soooo sad for 1.3 billion people.

So, what's happenin their up North? I told it like that or day after tomorrow.....? Hope ya party enough to keep that crazy head of yours busy!

Miss ya buddy and have fun!

susanne said...

Hihi, Gordon is funny like always...

...yet tell me Gordon, why should Nachi turn gay only by expressing himself in a great lyrical way in a medium called words??
Then famous writers like Shakespeare, Goethe, Hemingway, Edgar Allen Poe and many others should have been gay too...
...mmhh?

:-)

Nachi, I love your words.

I admit I am a fan of your writings and you are one of the few "English -writing -people" I always translate in all details with my internet dictionary.
I like the style of your writings cause you take along me on your literary "journeys" in a gentle yet expressive way.
Your way of telling stories with words reminds me too of Daniel's way of telling stories in movies...
It's simply great.