I was born in the year 1959 at Kaithal, a small town in Haryana. I grew up at Kaithal doing my schooling and graduation upto the age of 18. After passing Bachelor of Arts (BA) course, I moved out of Kaithal to study MA (English) from Panjab University at Chandigarh. Away from my hometown for the first time, I stayed in a university hostel for two years. Most of my classmates were from outside Chandigarh. The first question all of us asked each other when meeting for the first time was, “Which place are you from?” or “Where do you belong to?” My answer obviously was that I belonged to Kaithal.
Though I asserted Kaithal to be my hometown, my father and grandfather were known as ‘Pundri wale’ (persons belonging to Pundri). Actually, my grandfather initially belonged to a nearby village Pundri where my father was born and brought up. A bright student that he was, my father went on to study Law from University of Delhi. As there was no court in Pundri to practice law, my father along with his parents migrated to the nearest town Kaithal having kutcheri (Court). After establishing his law practice at Kaithal, my father got married. Thus, I was born at Kaithal, where I lived the first 18 years of my life.
After completing my studies, I found a job, entailing transfers, in a public sector bank. I kept moving from one place to another in different States. At all new places, I would be faced with the same question as to which place I belonged to. I would say ‘Kaithal’ because I grew up there for the first 18 years of my life. After retirement, I have settled at Panchkula in Haryana. Even now I say that I belong to Kaithal if someone asks about my native place.
As usual I got married soon after entering a job. My daughter was born in the midst of my first posting at Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. Afterwards, my daughter lived at Panchkula, Hisar, and Chandigarh during the successive phases of my postings. My family didn’t always move with me on all my postings, which were frequent. That would have upset the continuity of my daughter’s studies.
My daughter’s schooling was split between Panchkula and Hisar (both in Haryana). At Chandigarh she did her BA (Hons.), LLB and LLM. After completing her studies, she did a stint with a senior lawyer at Chandigarh. Finally, she landed a job in New Delhi. Following in my footsteps, she also joined a transferable job in a public sector bank. Inexorably, she got married to a boy already living in New Delhi.
After Delhi tenure, my daughter is presently posted at Meerut in UP. She was earlier in UP at Moradabad – which wasn’t our native place - for the first four years of her life.
By the age of 35, my daughter is already living in 6th place which is Meerut (U.P.). Her longest unbroken stay was for 10 years at Chandigarh and shortest was for 4 years at Moradabad. I don’t know what she says when someone enquires about her native place or her hometown. Children first born to parents in transferable jobs and later themselves joining transferable jobs cannot pinpoint their hometown.