I
have said I have a dual life but in actuality, I have three broad lives,
geographically speaking. Psychologically speaking, I have more than I can count
or categorize, so I won’t even attempt a description of it. I can hardly
describe my three lives in detail, but here is an attempt. I will start with
the third, the interim life I live between the two long-term lives in the US
and in the Kullu Valley: in my hometown, Chandigarh, though I never grew up
here. It has always between a stop-gap life between lives, a necessary via. It
is where my parents, and now only my mother, and an entire clan of relatives,
lives. Wedged between my two solitudes, it is a social life, the place I
connect to my roots and all the things that are its manifestations – food,
dress, culture, language. I first feel a high upon landing from the US, and
getting into the car to make the long night journey to Chandigarh. I feel the
high for several days, meeting those I love, a lot of adults, and my joy, the
children in the family. Since I have resolved to live each of my lives with
engagement and presence, I enjoy all of it. And when weariness sets in, and the
interaction becomes too much for the hermit that I am, I head up to my life in
the mountains.
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