TO The City I am in Love With

The piece is about a girl falling in love with the city she used to hate before

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TO the city I am in love with;

The first time you welcomed me with blaring horns of cars and buses, I didn’t have the audacity to relish the changes of my life.

I detested the crowd of people pushing, thrusting and shoving upon each other, desperate to be the first and excel in everything possible.

I hated all of your nooks and crannies, your alleys and arcades,

Your rusty sight, dusty roads and muddied puddles.

Your cemented and concrete jungles made me feel suffocated everywhere I went.

You know, I have always been in love with quiet places, with the clouds floating across the painted sky, with the sweet fragrance of summer lilies and the burble of streams.

The dimly lit street lamps and the sounds of crickets hovering around them.

Everyday I rushed to work, pushing my way through the throng of people,

I yearned to steal a smile from the passerby with whom I collided, but in return got a glaring look.

Every day, I tried to make myself the so called ‘presentable’ and ‘acceptable’ I ended up putting a big question mark on my identity and my individuality.

Today, I stand on the middle of your wide lane reminiscing the brawls I had with self,

I no longer hate your darkest nooks or crannies but always crave for the juicy dumplings getting made there, inside one the little food stalls.

I have befriended the old sweet lady in there who makes sure to feed the street dogs everyday with an extra loaf of bread.

Your rusty sight today makes me realize the aesthetic beauty you have been safeguarding since eons.

And I am already accustomed to walking alongside the muddied puddles and dusty roads.

I no longer suffocate living amid the high-rise super structures because I fathom the significance of growth and evolution.

I have perceived, the glaring eyes I got from that one stranger was just an explosion of her rage with her restless life.

It was her who helped me catch a bus, some days later.

I still loathe the ear bursting noise of the automobiles,

But not you, anymore.

Because, ‘for every bad thing in life, there are more good things to tip the balance.’

By Dibya Dahal

From: Nepal

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