To Darjeeling With Love

Sometimes in life, you have to leave something behind you love the most. The kind of realization is precious, and the further you go, the more precious it becomes. Darjeeling deserves it.

“Darjeeling is where my heart is”

It is where my soul dwells.

I miss my town. Lane by lane, memories sipping every curve of its road, and brick by brick, like building up pieces of myself.

I’ve tried to write a letter to you innumerable times. Tried to capture your beauty, your part in my life, through words, because that’s all I have.

But I’ve realized some things can’t be shared with pen and paper-for they have a place in our heart. Yet, I’m still hoping to try.

You’ve been my comfort zone. My cocoon for twenty four years of my life. And out of all the places I’ve lived in, you’re the only one I call HOME.

You’ve kept me safe in times that lacked gentleness, weathered storms, both physical and emotional, and yet still provided me the warmth I sought for.

But I’m far away.

I left you with acceptance of inevitable.

I left you, didn’t I?

Like every other relationship, we too had to be apart to know how much we love each other, I gather.

Because after a certain point, I’d be honest, I started to despise you. I wanted to fly, and you just weren’t enough. I wanted to soar like a kite, while you kept me rooted, firmly to the ground.

And so I left, fanning my wings like a butterfly, trying to make a home out of unknown places, weave memories out of strange roads and see some familiarity in some unfamiliar faces.

But, I want you to know, that out of all the changes I’ve made in my life, You are and continue to be the only constant.

I miss tracing the lines on your skin, with every perplexed labyrinth part of thine.

I miss how yours was a body I knew the map of.

How I knew every curve, every scar and how you wear it all so proudly.

Perhaps, that’s why I know, that you and I are forever.

Not bound by distance, but by memories of growing up and becoming stronger and braver each day.

[Writes: Niten Chhetri]