Barapani Diary 

My job as an air traffic controller needs me to be posted at small and very small practically non-existent airports for a certain duration of time. In year 2011, one such posting led me to Barapani, an airport around forty kilometres away from Shillong. An entirely different world where from around thousand arrival departures at Delhi airport there was a lone flight to control, that too the flight played truant and missed our airport many days! In the place where my toddler grew up amidst nature, I read, wrote, introspected, reflected, and missed my husband at times!

Check out all episodes of Barapani Diary – https://www.storyberrys.com/category/series/barapani-diary/

‘Missing Delhi’ (Part 4)

As much as it was solitude and bliss, with beautiful tranquil nature all around, it was lonely at times, especially without better half and without any restaurant or even a samosa shop nearby! The little TV with the dish and the data card I had was my connection to the world with the city being 40 kilometres away with a bumpy road and unpredictable traffic and a toddler at the toe. But I guess this was the year I had read the maximum number of books and started blogging. There was a power cut at eleven o clock every night when I put away my book and slid behind the mosquito net. But I longed for the city and some so-called hustle-bustle sometimes.

I enjoyed my little long holiday in Delhi given the boredom and missing my spouse. It was a mixed-bag holiday with health playing some tricks on me, my little one but then life is something you have to squeeze out some happiness from and no perfection awaits us anywhere. The onset of Delhi chill, mall hopping, long rounds in SN Market, Karol Bagh in the foggy Delhi sun and yes, mouth-watering Shawarmas at Defence colony, Al Bakes, those crispy fried besan pakodas covered with muli and mint chutney at Lajpat Nagar (Ram laddoos) and the show stopper… sending my help for Chole Bhature from INA footpath, once husband steps out of the house. Well, he can’t be blamed considering my non-alcoholic fatty liver and high triglycerates (whatever that means).

Speaking of Delhi, can’t get over the taste of good food and good times, that hot cuppa at Barista with a warm almond muffin and a newfound husband, rediscovering the same old relationship in Saket malls sharing a plate of Sushi, watching deer and peacocks with daughter at Hauz Khas in a leisurely warm Sunday morning, and of course Dilli-Haat with its colourful bangles stoles and yes! yes! fried momos at Nagaland stall with red hot chutney, and not to miss the sabudana vada at Maharashtra stall. Ah yes! the foodie in me is up, awake, hungry and relishing, savouring good times…!!

After the crests and troughs, health problems in the family, and being stuck in a fog affected Rajdhani Express but the toddler of my daughter kept everyone busy in the train compartment. Finally, I was back and I was about to write back to where I belong, who knows where I belong to…that four-lane-clad, malls and flyover embellished city of Delhi where somehow, I found my little space. I know many would object to me occupying little space, the city of Guwahati where school college university days zoomed by on the bank of the Brahmaputra or this place where I am supposed to spend one year more and had spent another year earlier in my first job.

In Delhi, I’d always feel I belong somewhere in Assam in Guwahati while at Guwahati I just longed to see the world and while being in Barapani there’s a sense of calm and peace, a feeling of ‘Shangri-La’ where time stands still and whose inhabitants hardly venture out of this land but this loneliness, I wasn’t much equipped to bear it all.

Soma Bhattacharjee