Earlier I wrote about places and feelings and this post is almost like a follow up to that one. Places and feelings do go together. Especially those of safety and security. Whilst one place can seem so unsafe and impossible to live in, just 15 mins away you can feel the most secure you ever have.
And as always, it really is about the people. Cities by themselves are hollow caricatures, not too different from one another. Perhaps geographically and historically distinct, but history and geography don't bring you back to a place too often. What keeps you connected to any place is those that stay there.
Take for instance Ludhiana, a perfectly non remarkable town from the perspective of travel interest. Yet people like me feel a strange sense of completion and familiarity when they go there. Simply because there are people that matter that still stay there. Or then there are memories with other people that keep pulling us back.
Once again I am amazed at how social man is. How incomplete and desolate without other humans. How pathetic and lonely without those around him.
And as always, it really is about the people. Cities by themselves are hollow caricatures, not too different from one another. Perhaps geographically and historically distinct, but history and geography don't bring you back to a place too often. What keeps you connected to any place is those that stay there.
Take for instance Ludhiana, a perfectly non remarkable town from the perspective of travel interest. Yet people like me feel a strange sense of completion and familiarity when they go there. Simply because there are people that matter that still stay there. Or then there are memories with other people that keep pulling us back.
Once again I am amazed at how social man is. How incomplete and desolate without other humans. How pathetic and lonely without those around him.
wow!!......i can so totally relate to this one!!
ReplyDeleteDB
I completely agree with you. There are two exceptions, and they are both very rare.
ReplyDelete1. Some places give you a sense of belonging even when all of "your" people who once used to live there are gone. For me, the town where I lived for five years during my undergraduate work - Banaras - has that effect.
2. There are some places - very rare - that give you an instant sense of "been there" when you arrive there. Machu Pichu did that to me; I was completely at peace with the place when I got there. No other place in the world did this for me.
ASnonymous
@ DB, I am glad you can relate.
ReplyDelete@ AS, Possibly the first situation could exist... but it would make you nostalgic in a sad sort of way... it wouldn't be a happy belonging. I still havent encountered the second situation... but I would like to!