Mumbai- This city of seven islands is just a fusion of many cultures, religion, languages and economies. Its financial bling has compelled many people from different parts of the world over the years to migrate here. Migration is tough, done only by the bold. Yes, I am talking about the people who leave behind their families and migrate to different parts of the globe in order to earn money. I often wonder what would their life be like. Would they always be at peace away from their home? I tend to get home sick when I visit my maternal grandma’s house in SoBo, despite living in the suburbs of this city. So, definitely those long time migration’s ain’t for the fainthearted.
Have you ever wondered about those lionhearts standing on our borders for days and nights, thousands of miles away from their homes, just so that the country can sleep in peace? It certainly is a migration in itself. Migration isn’t just restricted to what we have learnt in schools during out Geography lectures. It is a travelling experience that scales far beyond our classrooms. As I was writing this piece, I suddenly remembered the time when I migrated in this city.
But, this was just a migration within the city itself. About a year ago, my mom came up to me with a news that we had to leave this house and travel, or, I would rather say migrate to another place. Hearing this new I was startled and all the Geography lectures from my school days started hovering around me. I had a number of questions affiliated regarding the same, as though I had to answer a Geography question paper.
We then put up our house ‘On Sale’ and began our search for a new one. As all these years we had been living in a bungalow, the flats available in this city were just not meant for us. I wasn’t happy about having to travel to a new place forever and it gave me jitters. One fine day, my dad came up with the news saying that he had found a perfect place for us and to my surprise, today we live in a new home which lies right behind our old house.
Indeed, this world is such a small place to live in. this was just my small story of migration. Well, I think that we all migrate every day, every hour and every second. Yes, we travel to work every day, to our schools, colleges etc. Don’t we? All of us are constantly migrating to different places for some or the other cause. With a billions of people in this city, comes a billion different stories of migration. We all have our own travel diaries, with a different tale to tell. I just wrote the first chapter of my travel diary. When are you writing yours?
– Urvashi Shah
2 Comments