Childhood: a carefree romp that didn’t last

A random account of some events of my childhood... I began to write this piece because I wanted to send it to Teresa Rahman as part of her series on childhood memories in the Thumprint Northeast. But it turned out to be a very therapeutic exercise as well as the news of the horrible aircraft disaster in Ahmedabad came in. It might sound self-indulgent but it kept me from sinking... 

My childhood was spent mainly at three places, Guwahati, Delhi and Shillong. I was born in Delhi as my mother, Renuka Devi Barkataki, was a young parliamentarian at that time. But whenever my mother needed to go anywhere, since my absentminded and rather impractical father, Munin Barkotoki, could not be trusted with such things, I was left with my aunt, my Jethima, in Shillong, who ran a full house with six kids of her own. The first time I was left there I was barely a few months old – Ma was selected to be part of a parliamentary delegation to the US. She was gone for more than a month.  When she returned, I did not recognize my mother anymore and refused to go back with her.

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A lesser known version of Rajasthan

The most touristy thing we did on this trip

Our annual road trip this time was to  Rajasthan -- yes, it was in Jan-Feb this time and  not in November and yes, it was much shorter than the usual three weeks, we did what we could, but at the end of the two weeks we had covered 3342 kilometers which is about the same if not a little more than what we had done in our annual forays lasting about three weeks in previous years. We drove a lot but all that driving was enough only to discover a very tiny part of that large, beautiful, colourful and extremely attractive state. 

There were essentially three cities we planned our trip around this time -- Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur. But we also got to experience some parts of Rajasthan that tourists normally do not have time for. We saw many imposing but abandoned hawelis, huge but deserted villages, breathtakingly beautiful architecture and exquisite frescoes, pretty lakes, vast desert landscapes and much more... Also, it was the first time I felt that while on a road trip, the journey itself is what was special, much more than the destination. Looking out of the window of our Kia Seltos into the endless desert sand dunes and the scruffy green-gold landscape filled with low bushes and thorny shrubs, one could experience not just the magnificence of it all, but also the pettiness and meaninglessness of so many of our earthly ambitions...

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Back again in Germany at springtime

I don't have a lot to say right now....because just as I was planning to write a happy post about the lovely things I saw during a forest walk in the Eifel the other day, terror struck in Pahalgam and killed so many innocent people that I am terrified, terrified even to be happy. Terrified to say that this world is in order because my world back home is not in order. How could it be when so many people were killed needlessly by a bunch of terrorists who have no religion, no country, no God, or perhaps that is wrong, perhaps hate is their religion, their country, their God... who can say...

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