The land of the five rivers...

hmm....

A lot has happened in the last few days.. I have moved and am now living in Chandigarh, in Nothern India. Wile Chandigarh is a Union territory (meaning that it is fedral territory and does not belong to any state), it shares a lot of it's culture with Punjab. In fact it is also the capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana....

The appended text is from a letter i'd written to a friend describing the place and my feelings about moving here... Happy reading.
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Staying here in Punjab, the land from which I hail is a very different experience. I feel like a traveler who after a long journey has returned home. The people, the food, the culture, everything here makes me feel so much at home. I dunno why. I’ve never lived here bfr… In fact bfr I came here I was apprehensive – I wondered how it would be, I’d heard about rich, uneducated landlords and buffoons. I’d heard of lawlessless and anarchy and of a land that does not respect it women. I’d heard to hot headdenss and a changed topography. But what I found has left me speechless…

Wide open spaces with lots of greenery, a air so fresh that one feel charged at all times, water in the tap so pure that one could drink rigt out of the taps…. Food so yummy tht the stomach is full, but the heart wants more. Bread so soft that I’ve barely eaten rice since I reached here….. I’ve not taken to any place as soon as I’ve taken to this one. I’d really like for you to come and spend some time here with me. I’d like to introduce you to some real Punjabi food and to show you a part of this country I’ve called home since I was born and to show you a part of the land from where I culturally hail…. I’ve never felt this way bfr. I’ve traveled and seen quite a lot of places, I’ve lived in eight other places apart from Chandigarh. But somehow this is different. In a very weird way. The closest I can come to explaining the feeling is – homecoming.

I wish you weren’t going back and I wish tht we could be together. But then as they say, Que sera sera….

Lots of love,

Jaideep