You visit the small town of your childhood
Absorbing the milieu, the roadside, the eateries
The humdrum and chaos of the bazaar
The sweat, the smell of human bodies
The urgencies, the anticipation, the irritation
Breathing in all at once, the strange familiar

You are in it and yet you are not
For today you have a glorious choice
The choice to escape from it all
Should it prove too daunting, too challenging
Too ordinary, lacking in excitement
Wrapped in shrouds of mechanistic boredom

Why does the familiar seem so strange today
After decades of absence
Has the place changed or have you moulted to a new person
Outgrown the small town syndrome
Outlived your ordinary, inglorious past

You are reduced to spurts of self doubt
As your sense of freedom begins to soar
Flying on the wings of measured choicefullness
Completely outmanoeuvring the pangs of putrid guilt
Letting the strangeness seep into your bones
Dimming your familiar to the point of the unfamiliar

Subir Chakraborty
11th July 2021