by Dewanshu Pande

Hello friends! Actually I’m a bit confused today as I don’t know what exactly to write about. So just for a change from my routine, I’m gonna write about the place where I live i.e. MY CITY- BHOPAL. well first of all to be clear I’m not gonna write about it’s history ,past ,present or future to be precise but I’m gonna write what it means to be living in this city.

Well friends, I’ve been in this city ever since my childhood i.e. for almost two decades now. Seen this city grow, as I grew myself. The earliest of all my memories is of the place where we used to live in the 1980’s, old subhash nagar. I still remember when I was about four, my father used to take me for a stroll or on his two-wheeler near the railway tracks and I used to watch the trains pass by one after the other. It was just an amazing sight for a 4 year old like me at that time.

Gradually I grew up and started to explore Bhopal. With all its wonderful sights and amazing places to visit I gradually fell in love with this beautiful city. Today as I’m writing this, I wonder what’s the best thing, which fascinates me about this city. to be frank there is a mystic blend of various things and places that hold’s one’s breath for moments unspoken……I question my self…Is it the lake? The van vihar? Or the boat club? The Gauhar Mehel? The crowded streets? Or the faces in the crowd that draw my attention each passing minute. well it’s not just one thing to start off with.

Bhopal with all its majestic features always gives me a new reason to fall in love with it. It’s not like that you look at the same thing and get bored in one or two days. Each little thing and place that relates to this city, gives me an all new perspective to explore and identify this beautiful place.

Not only are the places, but the people that live here just amazing. My fellow BHOPALIS – what they like themselves to be called as…are all different yet all same. They are different-in their looks, their style, their attitude, their color, their religion, yet they are all same because in their heart lives the feeling of oneness, of love, care and brotherhood.

As I crawl along the streets of old Bhopal I see a richness in it’s culture and traditions, each door and window pane speaks a story for itself, a story that has been transferred to many and will be passed on to generations to come. The story of that golden era of Bhopal when it was build and ruled by the NAWABS. I can still see a few houses build based on the old NAWABI ARCHITECTURE – the window panes and frames made of wood….wooden doors with iron locks…and the so called beautiful art of NAKKASHI still appear on several house walls , doors and ceilings, arched gateways marking the entrances to many a houses and much more.

BHOPAL is beautiful indeed, and what make it beautiful are not the various things scattered around the city, but also our love for the city and a feel of pride that we live here. There are many things that are yet to be written about, many a places that needs description, but all of it is not possible in such a small article. I end this one here, but with an aim of scribbling out another in a few days time in which I would try to discover what makes Bhopal…..BHOPAL…..with all its magical aura beholding a man’s heart…