Ghevra is at a distance of 75 kilometers from Dakshinpuri, by Lakhmi Kohli
The kilometers don't feel like they have been traversed, on reaching Ghevra. Instead, the distance seems to hide in the spread of Ghevra.
Ghevra is discussed often in Dakshinpuri. How can it be otherwise? When a settlement in the city is faced with demolition and there is talk of relocation, a resettlement colony like Dakshinpuri begins to reminisce. Images and memories from its own past emerge. The thought of every moment passing in the settlement that is being demolished begins to evoke moments that constitute its own past. Narrations begin about what the city had flet like when one was being evicted from ones own home. The tension in the city becomes near to the self.
In moments like this, the only difference between Dakshinpuri and Ghevra seems to be that with the passage of time, Dakshinpuri has reclaimed its place in the city, whereas Ghevra has just begun on this journey.
"Where have they brought and left us, so far!" When I hear someone in Ghevra saying this, I feel the distance between Dakshinpuri and Ghevra has stretched and become infinite. It seems then that Ghevra is not only distant from the present moment of Dakhshinpuri, but also from the imagination of the emerging city.
comments
No new comments allowed (anymore) on this post.