'No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man' ~ Heraclitus

Most of my life we lived on this one lane in Mumbai. It's a lane in a pretty affluent neighbourhood of Mumbai, well connected to everything, close to the famous Juhu beach dotted with a lot of Bollywood residences. We moved houses about twice much later but both times on the same lane. Back and forth literally. The experience of being not well off in such a well-off locality must have had a unique impact on me come to think of it—but let me reflect on that another day. Why I mention this lane now is because I have been feeling this wave of nostalgia for it... a deep desire to be back there as we were back then in some of the happy times...

And then I remembered this quote. I remembered that when I passed this lane just this December when I was in Mumbai, I could barely recognize it. I could barely recognize most places in Mumbai, but this one is special. I grew up on this lane. But it was just so different. So dusty, so dirty, so unkempt, so rundown, all sorts of carts and rubbish spilling into the street... so out of sorts really. It used to be a posh part of the city like I said earlier but now it had become an old part. Many new high rises and swanky places have come up whereas this lane got forgotten it would seem. Or... is it me who has changed? Who is seeing it with different, with a world traveller's eyes?

The lane I was longing for was not there anymore... even the 'I' I was picturing living on that lane wasn't there anymore. They were both in the past. Alive only in my and most likely my family members' memories. But even our memories I imagine recall a very different lane even though they are the same... These thoughts only made me miss my lane more because there was no way to go back... even if I did.