Byway Star

Okay. Public service announcement time.

So tomorrow is my last day in good Calicut. I’ve been dividing my time between Calicut and Bangalore for a while now, but I’m moving for good now.

Over two-odd years I had quiet moments by the sea – watching it as it went through brooding mornings, dazzling sunsets and raging rains. I lived the traveling salesman’s life. I walked through streets, letting old, ancestral-looking houses take me on nostalgia trips. I learnt to cook, tried culinary experiments, and discovered new food and drink. I lived with no furniture and few possessions. In the near-absence of civilization I discovered writing and rediscovered reading.

All along, I was in Bangalore on and off. But Calicut was what I’d long to come back to. The journey was as much a part of the charm of coming back – involving as it did wide empty highways with thick forests, vast valleys and occasional animal company. The solitude of the undistracted 6 hour drive on smooth open roads was a great pick-me-up. There were unexpected possibilities of seeing other parts of Kerala and of getting to write about them.

Calicut really happened because I took a bit of a career-gamble just over two years ago – and figured I’d help run a small business than join a big one. There were occasional troughs, there were unexpected breakthroughs, there was sometimes the relief of recovery and getting back on track. We didn’t become a multi-million dollar company, but we grew way better than I’d ever thought.

As the company stabilized and settled down, it increasingly started to look like it was time to move on. A couple of cool work-prospects popped up. After some agonizing over options, I finally said yes to one of them a few weeks ago.

So, tomorrow will be the last drive back on NH212. As yet, the finality of the departure hasn’t sunk in. It’ll seep in over months and perhaps years, as tiny reminders of Cal cause memories

to come flooding in.

(*Title credit: Ramanand on email.)