The world is bigger than you think

I was born into a middle-class family in a tier-3 town, so I couldn’t experience things that tier-1 city kids did. My parents were teachers, and I had a humble beginning, meaning I always got three meals a day, but our lives weren’t that luxurious.

The place where I lived my entire childhood was Bettiah (845438), and it has a small railway station. Now, why am I saying this? You will know in a minute. I knew that a junction is a railway station where trains from two or more routes come to meet, but I had never seen a junction properly. On January 1, 2023, I went to Narkatiyaganj Junction to visit Lauriya Nandangarh. I also wrote a blog on that, which I can’t find anywhere.

For the first time, I saw tracks from three different directions meeting at one railway station, and I was in awe. I was amazed to see that.

My second experience came from Patna Junction when my whole family went to Patna for my elder sister’s Neet exam. For the first time in my life, I used an escalator, and I was quite afraid of using it.

At the same time, when we took a room in Patna City, I found a lift there that I didn’t know how to operate. I didn’t even know that while pressing a single button outside, one could bring up the lift. My father did that, and I learned how to operate it. After that, me & my younger brother just used all the 1000 rupees we paid by using the lift.

Again, when I went to Takhat Sri Harimandir Ji, Patna Sahib, I was shocked to see the giant structure and its beauty. I hadn’t seen such a thing all my life. The same thing happened when I first saw the mighty never-ending Ganges, being honest the river was terrifying.

Again, on my recent trip to Bhopal Junction, where I went to see the Union Carbide Factory, I saw the beauty of Bhopal Junction; it was marvellous.

Union Carbide Factory: An Obsession

I saw the railway station that I only saw on television and social media that the government said to build. From the outside of Bhopal Junction, it looked like I was in some developed country. I thought that it was the best the government could do, and nothing could have happened better than that until I went to Rani Kamlapati Station, which is the station next to Bhopal Junction. Again, there I saw another ecosystem only on the foot over the bridge. I saw shops and a hell lot of other things on the FOB.

I also saw lifts on the FOB, and needless to say, it was too clean and everything was too well organized.

I used a subway for the first time to exit the railway station at Rani Kamlapati Station.

I saw roads in the railway station and the giant structures built for Bhopal Metro and I was overwhelmed, and I thought that I, a boy coming from such a small place, didn’t deserve to be here.

Well, I am 18 now, and I know that I am going to have a lot of experiences that I never had earlier, and speaking frankly, I want to have those experiences, both good and bad. I want to expand my thinking about possibilities.

Thanks for reading.

This is Navneet signing off from today’s blog.

Peace 🕊️