We moved to a small two bedroom apartment (It’s total space is equivalent to an average one bedroom apartment). We have about 5 families in the neighbourhood. The people who live right next door, in a big bungalow, are the sneaky and clever ones. They are hideous, avoid confrontation, prevaricate to work around lies about almost spying on us for no reason or purpose at all, and just always eager to know what’s going on in other people’s lives, especially the lady of the house.
Now I do not mean any disrespect, but I’ve seen many women living in small hill towns like mine, having had their share of being bogged down by thousands of years of patriarchial culture. I think what this has led to is that some of them have tried to find a way to have power over something. Unfortunately that something sometimes turns out to be just forthright gossiping, firing rumours and so on and so forth. Falsified things, that gives them power over how particular people are percieved by others. It is a terrible super power to have. It’s like that chinese whisper game, but in which the sentences are twisted intentionally. It’s annoying.
Nahan, is weird, in that, it’s been several years now, since the internet revolution, but this and many such mountain places are still primitive. There are no new businesses being set up. Property and shops are the only two main businesses here. There aren’t even properly used cyber cafes here. Year after year, teenagers grow up here, with the understanding that being macho is very important in life. This coming from some parents themselves. The language is weird here. It’s neither Himachali, nor Haryanwani, it’s like a surreptitious combination of both. It sounds like one is schizophrenic. People are ready to fight for the smallest thing, like it was something their lives depended on. Big bull shit values of the collective town. I wonder if this was how the place was when it was ruled by the famous King of here.
The only thing that keeps me sane here, is the wind that flows in a particularly secluded part of the town. Thankfully that is where I’ve always lived, though in different houses.
I’m going to leave this town soon, for good, better.
Journey My Brain 