Roopali Sircar Gaur |
Roopali
Sircar Gaur, Ph.D. is a
retired English professor (Sri Venkateswara college, University of Delhi), and
Founder President of YUVATI, a nonprofit organisation working for adolescent
girls and boys across India. Sircar Gaur also works with children
from underserved communities in what she calls Mera Kitab Ghar: The
Backyard Book Club she established as a pop-up book club. She also taught
Creative Writing at IGNOU for many years. Sircar Gaur is a widely published
columnist and writer, who has written for peer-reviewed journals, and presented
papers and served on academic conference panels at Universities in the United
Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Canada and India. Her book The
Twice Colonised: Women in African Literature is a seminal text on
those subjects. She is also the co-editor (with Anita Nahal) of the anthology, In
All The Spaces-Diverse Voices In Global Women’s Poetry (2020). Sircar Gaur
has traveled the world, and now lives in Meerut, India with her retired
military spouse and their three dogs.
Travelling
Tales 1
I
am Janus...The Roman God. Like the month of January named after me I look back
and I look ahead. Journeys are like that. They begin in memories of other
places and other times. Somewhere on our journeys, we catch up with places and
people who had journeyed ahead of you.
In
South Florida I caught up on one such friend who had left the adjoining village
to the shores of the United States of America. How deep and beautiful that
connection, unravelled itself in memories of each and every word we had once
exchanged. He was the young physician next door who was aspiring to go to the
US: Those were heady days and he left one day.
But
before he did, we friends got together to bid him farewell. After all the
dancing and singing was over he sang a most poignant song…a song about never
saying goodbye. The song echoed over the
decades that we did not and could not meet.
Last
night as I walked into his incredibly palatial home, a movie star home with the
who’s who in the neighborhood, I knew my friend had arrived. His long journey
from next door physician to reputed celebrity cardiologist had happened.
My
heart swelled with pride. The chandeliers twinkled and tinkled with the wine
glasses as we raised a toast to this eventful journey. His and mine. To sit and
talk about my father and my family and my father’s home where we all hung out
was incredibly satisfying.
The
dinner was thoughtfully curated. It was all Hyderabadi cuisine. We Hyderabadis
just sat down and ate, swallowing our tears and our memories.
We
forgot Florida.
When
it was time to go, the cardiologist broke my heart. ❤️
He
picked up the karaoke mic and sang the song he sang in 1977 before he left
home...
Kabhi
alvida na kehena
Never
say goodbye.
The
heart travels too.
Travelling
Tales 2
Travelling
is not always about places it is about people who live in those places. I am
particularly interested in human behaviour especially of people known and
unknown. Coming from environs where the neighbour
hood is no longer neighbourly I am charmed by the friendly hi and hello from
anybody and everybody I encounter. Be it the postman, the janitor, the dog
walking neighbour or the helmet wearing young cyclist. It has made me a
friendly person too. I feel less conscious about the exotic ethnicity that I
think I exude.
The
super expensive only high end shopping mall called Tyson Galleria with its
quietly boasting Omega, Yeves St Lauren's, Gucchi, Saks of Fifth Avenue,
Chanel, Armani, Michael Kors , and the shining sleek Maserati
cars , Calvin Klein , Ralph Lauren had
just a handful of people window shopping. If I were to buy these I would
have to move into a mansion in a new neighbour hood. The neighbours may not be
as friendly.
What
kind of people bought a handbag that cost $3000? Or a suit that cost seven
thousand! Or a man perfume for $ 2,350!!!
Couldn't be very nice people.
Thinking
my thoughts, I headed towards the exit. A huge glass door barred my way and a
gentleman with salt and pepper hair, dressed immaculately in a suit (Armani?)
stepped aside holding the door ajar for me, as I stepped out, he ran and opened
the second huge glass door smiling. I was overwhelmed. "Thank you thank
you " I gushed. " i have not met anybody like you!" He smiled the handsomest smile I had seen!
"I am the last of the American gentlemen left! " he laughed "oh
I am joking". " you deserve a hug" I said. It was followed by a
big hug, a kiss on my cheek and a, “I am always ready to hug a beautiful
woman". I saw the flash of an Omega watch and smelt the whiff of Clive
Christian no 1…
People
who shop here aren't bad at all. Just different. The heart travels everywhere.
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