While there are so many places that we visit and like, there are only a few that feel like home almost as soon as you set your foot there. I had written about some such cities last week. This week I continue the list and bring to you few more cities that are close to my heart. The list is in no particular order.
Literally speaking, I have been to Phnom Penh thrice. All in December 2017, during one single trip to Cambodia. The city is special to me mostly because the trip came at a time when I needed a break from a lot of things. The trip was one of my busiest travels and it didn't leave much room for me to think too much. Early mornings, late nights, continuous work without breaks, was all that I needed.
Moreover, it was a new kind of trip. I was going to be working with Care Cambodia, and I was going to be talking about topics that were fairly new to me. This also meant that I was keeping very busy even before the trip actually began - studying and preparing for it, fretting about how difficult the actual project was going to be, and dealing with all other issues around me.
After a couple of months of stress, when I actually landed in Phnom Penh, I was greeted warmly by our Project Manager at the airport. The general at home feel of the city took care of most of my nervousness. The rest vanished as we started working together on our project.
It helped that we could see Phnom Penh's skyline from our windows and it was a pleasant one. It also helped that we decided to sneak up to the bar despite our Project Manager's insistence that we sleep early, and that we snuck out to visit the Russian market.
And the city has history and depth. You meet the cheerful and tuktuk drivers and you feel everything is fine in the world and it has always been. But such is not the case. You only need to search the city's name on google and you would uncover horrors that are difficult to comprehend. The incessant state of turmoil the country was in because of the war between US and Vietnam. The brutal Khmer Rouge that followed, and the recent political instability.
Phnom Penh means all this and much more to me. It means a lively river front, Buddhism and monks, a completely different approach to food, some questionable religious practices. Phnom Penh also means a huge Indian Flag fluttering on a foreign soil, and it means sitting for hours in an Indian restaurant at the river front and watching cruise ships go by.
It is this and much more that makes Phnom Penh special for me. Even slightly more than the other more popular city of Cambodia - Siem Reap.
From Southeast Asia move back home to my most favorite city in the entire world - my birthplace New Delhi. I was born and brought up here and am really fond of the place. Despite the city being in news for all the wrong reasons all the time, crimes, pollution, population, it is difficult to not fall in love with the place.
Being at the center of the world's largest democracy, the city is often at the center of a lot of big decisions too. And the sheer size, in terms of population and administrative area is quite overwhelming too. Despite several things going wrong, at the heart of it, people are able to get food, water, and employment here. It often makes one wonder how all these things keep getting managed and why hasn't everything fallen apart. Well, it has in some ways, yet in other ways, the system manages to hold itself. It is no less than a miracle.
It is a cliche to say that the city of Delhi has been torn down countless times and it has always risen out of its ashes like a Phoenix. You can see signs of that everywhere. There are architectural remains from several periods that stand proof to the fact. There is the old fort, the Qutb Minar, Humayun's Tomb, Red Fort and the list goes on and on.
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Apart from the architecture, there is the fact that the city is green. Well, in parts at least. The entire Lutyen's Delhi is beautiful and green, but even outside this area, there are parts of Delhi, Rohini, for example, is really green. There are huge trees, some other which bear flowers and fruit, that line the streets. There are birds too. However, sparrows are sparse and that is one aspect that I really miss about Delhi of the 80s.
Moreover, Delhi is home. It is where family is and most of my friends are. Whenever I am away from Delhi, I miss it. The city is an inseparable part of me. And that is partly what makes it so special. My most favorite place in the world.
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