Do We Miss Places More Than Pe...

It was simply that stretch exterior Vishwavidyalaya Metro Station.

The sort of place you don’t even register till you permit it behind.

Rows of tapris and meals stalls squeezed towards one another like overbooked recollections — somebody frying samosas in oil that’s been effervescent since morning, another person expertly tossing bhel puri with pappad and crimson chutney, that acquainted “chai le lo!” echoing from a nook the place steam rises prefer it’s a part of some previous ritual. Momos steaming, bottles of thumbs-up stacked like vibrant trophies in ice-filled crates.

And at all times, at all times, the e-rickshaw drivers calling out, “Kaha jaana hai? Patel Chest? Kamla Nagar? Miranda?”

College students all over the place, laughing, hurrying, dragging drained ft after an extended day, or lingering close to the stalls simply to keep away from going again to actuality too quickly.

That’s the place I used to attend for somebody who doesn’t textual content me again anymore.

And but now, after I cross that chaos, it’s not the individual I miss.

It’s that second. That specific, first-year school scholar model of me, standing in the course of all of it with a paper plate of bhel in a single hand, and a coronary heart filled with expectation.

Unusual, proper? How a crowded, noisy metro exit can someway really feel extra private than the individuals you shared it with, how bits of metallic and concrete can depart a deeper mark than somebody who as soon as mattered a lot.

It’s made me marvel — will we typically miss locations greater than individuals?

The Echo of Empty Areas 

Ask anybody about their childhood, and so they’ll begin with a location.

“There was this gali behind our home the place we used to play cricket…”

“Our faculty canteen had these horrible aloo samosas however we beloved it anyway…”

“Dadaji’s home had this tiny window close to the kitchen the place winter daylight used to pour in…”

It’s at all times an area. A room. A nook. A bench.

Not a reputation.

Perhaps it’s as a result of individuals change.

They develop, they neglect, they transfer on.

However locations? They sit nonetheless. Ready. Holding tales. Softly fading, however by no means betraying.

Locations Don’t Unfriend You

You possibly can’t get ghosted by a park.

You possibly can’t get left on learn by a gully.

That chai tapri proper beside your school doesn’t decide you for rising up, for not visiting, for shedding contact. It simply sits there quietly, ready. Perhaps it’s now serving a brand new technology of scholars with heartbreaks and bun maskas, however not directly, it nonetheless remembers you.

Individuals depart. Locations linger.

Perhaps that’s why, after we return to our hometowns after years, it’s not the individuals we first wish to meet, it’s the locations.

“Let’s go see if that dosa man remains to be there.”

“I simply wish to stroll previous the varsity wall once more.”

“I wish to stand on our previous terrace yet one more time.”

Even when the individuals have moved on, these areas carry the echo of us.

Like time folded itself neatly into the corners.

The Model of You That Nonetheless Lives There

Reality is, we don’t simply miss locations.

We miss who we have been in these locations.

That slim staircase in your previous house constructing the place you sat and chilled out together with your OG buddies? You weren’t nervous about deadlines then.

That metro experience again from school? Cramped, sweaty, headphone wires tangled like your ideas, and someway — comforting. You’d stand half-asleep, leaning towards the door, watching the town blur previous in yellow line silence. Drained, sure. But in addition weirdly full — like life hadn’t even correctly begun but, and also you have been already residing it.

The nook desk at that overpriced café the place you had your first date? You have been filled with hope, possibly even carrying fragrance you couldn’t afford.

Once we revisit previous locations, we’re not chasing individuals.

We’re chasing variations of ourselves.

That’s the actual nostalgia, a eager for a “you” that doesn’t exist anymore.

Right here’s a enjoyable experiment. Go to your nearest metro station and simply sit. Don’t take a look at your cellphone. Simply observe.

Chances are high, you’ll bear in mind:

• That one pal you at all times met at Rajiv Chowk who’s now married and lives in Canada.

• That underground metro stretch the place the practice will get quieter and your ideas get louder.

• That random stall exterior Patel Chest that bought Maggi with a lot masala and cheese it almost killed you — however you continue to went again each week.

See? The station remembers greater than the individual.

Why It Hurts in a Lovely Method

Lacking locations is gentler than lacking individuals.

There’s no heartbreak, no arguments, no “what ifs.”

Simply mushy ache. Simply distant music from one other room.

Perhaps that’s why we discover consolation in previous buildings, dusty libraries, rusted swings, forgotten benches. They ask for nothing. They only sit with us, quietly grieving too.

As a result of if grief is love that has nowhere to go —

then nostalgia is reminiscence that simply needs to take a seat down for a minute.

So What Do We Do With This?

Actually? Nothing main.

Perhaps simply this:

• Go to an previous place this weekend — your college, your colony park, that one bakery.

• Don’t take a selfie. Don’t put up about it. Simply be there.

• Watch how your physique reacts earlier than your mind even catches up. The goosebumps. The mushy smiles. The lump in your throat.

• Let that model of you from 10 years in the past come sit beside you for some time.

Typically, probably the most therapeutic factor we are able to do is return. To not individuals. However to pavements.

As a result of Sure, We Do Miss Locations Extra Than Individuals.

And possibly that’s okay.

As a result of ultimately, locations don’t stroll away.

They keep.

Even when the lights change. Even when the individuals don’t.

The bench will nonetheless be ready.

And so will the model of you that after sat there —

laughing, dreaming, crying, residing…

Quietly, totally, utterly!