When I started writing this blog, I was not quite sure what it would be about. Somewhere at the back of my mind I had been thinking of all the interesting and unique people I had met in Bhopal, and how much they had touched me and perhaps influenced me in some subtle way.

I have always dreamed of writing something more substantial, perhaps a work of fiction, based in the city, but dealing with more complex issues. The BHEL township experience was particularly unique, since we were part of a very large experiment in social engineering. Just the melting pot it created, bringing people from all over the country, many of whom had never stepped outside their own states. was of tremendous interest.

The uprooting from their own milieus must have been difficult if not traumatic for some. I think more of what it might have done to the generation that grew up in these places – people like me. There was no way you could stay back, for you had to leave with your parent’s retirement, which essentially snatched away any hopes of having roots. All the places you knew, all the people you knew, would never be found there again. Just the way they came to this place, they would disperse again.

On the other hand, that very rootlessness, makes one a part of a mixed identity, blended, new and uniquely Indian. Perhaps in that sense the experiment was a success. Wonder if all who had to ride those centifugal forces feel the same way.