601

For most of my stay at Baroda our house no. was 601 & 602. It was a two storied apartment on the sixth floor of a six storied building. It was a place where I had gone through lots of good and bad experiences.

Being a Bengali (brought up in Baroda) and having stayed in other places like Bombay, Kolkata & Guwahati, whenever I thought about home it was always Baroda that came to my mind and invariably 601.

Try as much I can I could never call Kolkata (my birth place) as home. And yes I was ridiculed for this. But for me one thing is simple..home is where you have your best memories and not just a place where you stay.

I left Baroda in May 2003. The last one in our family to do so. I never knew how much I will miss this place even during my last night in the house. It didnt hit me till then that I may never be back in this place again. And I did not for almost 15 years.

Intially after leaving Baroda I used to think about that place but not so much. Then came Google Earth. Just for time pass I searched for my old house and then it started. Dont know what hit me may be nostalgia or home sickness or both. One of my favourite passtime became searching in Google Earth all the places I used to visit there...my school, my favourite ice cream parlour, Dad’s office and the list went on...

One may argue that if I was missing the place so much why I didn't visit the place all these years. The answer is simple going to Baroda and staying in a hotel was incomprehensible. I just could not bring myself to do it.

Now in 2018 when I was traveling to Bombay and I felt I had to visit Baroda. And I did. I was so excited that inspite of my flight being at 5:15 AM in the morning I reached the airport at 2:30 AM (I was staying just half an hour away from the airport).

First thought that came to my mind after landing in Baroda and getting out of the airport was this was not the Baroda I had left it had changed and it had changed for the better. My first day was spent visiting my old house followed by lunch at my favourite restaurant and a milk shake from my favourite ice cream parlour. In the evening visited my school and all the places I had lived in Baroda.

Now after almost a couple of weeks I am back in Baroda and my hotel room no. coincidentally is 601.