Star Struck

Have you ever looked up at the sky and stared at the stars?

- Mrinmoy Choudhury

I am sure everyone has. I am born and brought up in a place with a lot of natural beauty, greenery and almost no pollution. Watching the night sky with my cousins has been one of the favorite past time for me during family gatherings. And as I grew up, the stars seemed to fade out and eventually life took over. I left my home to study and since then, I have been changing cities and shifting homes, which now has become a part of me, making a living.

I live and work in Mumbai, one of the busiest metro cities in India, where distance too, is measured in time. I cursed the man whom I asked for directions, said that it was a five-minute walk. That five-minute walk turned out to be more than a kilometer of walking. Since then, I have been soaking up the fast-paced movement of the city and since then, there has been no stopping. What is missing is actually the breather and the stars I used to identify when I was young. The concrete jungle, seems to have swallowed all the nature and the skies around. I sure take vacations and breaks, but it is only for a moment that I feel good about it. I like riding motorcycles and have been riding two-wheelers since the age of 14. My dad’s two-stroke scooter was the first-ever two-wheeler which gave me a sense of freedom and since then, I have been crazy about these two-wheeled miracles. I ride a motorcycle in my current city and it is solely meant for commuting with a few leisure rides here and there. It is never really satisfying to ride in the city with vehicles trying to cut you from left and right and loud horns deafening you a bit more every passing day.