Found it! Yep, this would be your top most post for me, till the next one comes out. Grandma lived because what Radcliffe did or didn’t do - what a macro to micro. I could read this post repeatedly and will be moved everytime. Thank you for what you do. Also, I saw from NJ’s comment that you would write on fb in olden days? Fancy moving posts back here? Pleeeeeead! I mean pleeeeease!
I am so jealous of families who have their histories preserved. I don’t know what my great grandfather did. I am trying to find out more but I know I won’t be able to.
I am so sorry if I came across as entitled demander of your posts on substack (I am exactly that but I would like the facade to tell you otherwise). The reason I requested was a) I love your perspective b) I love your writing c) I am not present on any social media platform and I don’t want to lose out on your writing because a) and b)
I used to read your posts in Facebook but I gave up on Facebook long back!. They keep trying to get me back by sending me reminders on mail. The link to your post was one of them and I decided to follow up. I am glad I did and I have also subscribed to your site.
I just wanted to comment on your point about finding addresses with minimal information.
Not too many years ago my brother was directed to a wedding in a small town in Tamil Nadu called Karaikudi. The directions was very simple. - Ask anyone after you get off the bus where the wedding of the son of the Iyengar who owns the shop that sells cooking vessels. This was a town with a population of over 50000 people then!
It's great to see you here and connect with you again! Thank you for subscribing and reading. Smaller cities and towns are not as atomized as the metros for better and for worse, I think.
I think the major difference comes from the fact that in a Metropolis everyone is a stranger. All our relationships are, therefore, forged in the present - there is no history or geography (I use both words advisedly) attached to a relationship - except the ones we create by growing in it.
In small towns, and the old parts of the Metros - the petes in Bangalore, Daryaganj and Chandini Chowk areas in New Delhi or Sowcarpet and George Town in Chennai are places, I believe, where relationships are deeply intertwined with the place in space and time. One is not just one - one is one representative of a location and a genealogy.
Romila Thapar has a collection of essays called 'The Past as Present - Forging Contemporary Identities Through History'. It is largely about how there is often a desire to seek ratifications to what we would like to be by conflating imagined pasts (that is what History always is) to imagined presents.
But I see that the opposite - the present as past - is also true. Our personas, our relationships, our beliefs embody in them our past history and geography. Alienation is real in Metropolises because we are shorn of our histories.
Some of the smaller towns still retain these connections.
Found it! Yep, this would be your top most post for me, till the next one comes out. Grandma lived because what Radcliffe did or didn’t do - what a macro to micro. I could read this post repeatedly and will be moved everytime. Thank you for what you do. Also, I saw from NJ’s comment that you would write on fb in olden days? Fancy moving posts back here? Pleeeeeead! I mean pleeeeease!
I am so jealous of families who have their histories preserved. I don’t know what my great grandfather did. I am trying to find out more but I know I won’t be able to.
Thank you for this post, Ayush.
Thank you so much. your wish is my command. And I hope you do find out what he did and that I can read about it sometime
I am so sorry if I came across as entitled demander of your posts on substack (I am exactly that but I would like the facade to tell you otherwise). The reason I requested was a) I love your perspective b) I love your writing c) I am not present on any social media platform and I don’t want to lose out on your writing because a) and b)
Always very grateful for your demands :)
I used to read your posts in Facebook but I gave up on Facebook long back!. They keep trying to get me back by sending me reminders on mail. The link to your post was one of them and I decided to follow up. I am glad I did and I have also subscribed to your site.
I just wanted to comment on your point about finding addresses with minimal information.
Not too many years ago my brother was directed to a wedding in a small town in Tamil Nadu called Karaikudi. The directions was very simple. - Ask anyone after you get off the bus where the wedding of the son of the Iyengar who owns the shop that sells cooking vessels. This was a town with a population of over 50000 people then!
He found the place.
It's great to see you here and connect with you again! Thank you for subscribing and reading. Smaller cities and towns are not as atomized as the metros for better and for worse, I think.
I think the major difference comes from the fact that in a Metropolis everyone is a stranger. All our relationships are, therefore, forged in the present - there is no history or geography (I use both words advisedly) attached to a relationship - except the ones we create by growing in it.
In small towns, and the old parts of the Metros - the petes in Bangalore, Daryaganj and Chandini Chowk areas in New Delhi or Sowcarpet and George Town in Chennai are places, I believe, where relationships are deeply intertwined with the place in space and time. One is not just one - one is one representative of a location and a genealogy.
Romila Thapar has a collection of essays called 'The Past as Present - Forging Contemporary Identities Through History'. It is largely about how there is often a desire to seek ratifications to what we would like to be by conflating imagined pasts (that is what History always is) to imagined presents.
But I see that the opposite - the present as past - is also true. Our personas, our relationships, our beliefs embody in them our past history and geography. Alienation is real in Metropolises because we are shorn of our histories.
Some of the smaller towns still retain these connections.
Beautiful comment, thank you.
And I enjoyed Thapar's book too.
You are such an evocative story teller. Thank you for another wonderful article.
Thank you so much!