Mughalsarai

There is so much history in place names.

Take Mughalsarai [Wikipedia entry]. The name literally means the way stop of the Mughals. The city has long existed on the Grand Trunk Road which connected Delhi, the seat of the Mughals, with eastern India.

Within these two simple words - Mughal and Sarai - live entire histories. You can almost imagine a 17th century city filled with itinerant travellers at the crossroads of a great empire. In your mind’s eye, you see people arguing hotel rates and hoteliers threatening their workers for slacking off at peak times. And now you come across city residents huddled around a sigree (wood fired stove) against the winter winds through the plains of India gossiping about the latest debauchery they saw on the streets of this city of journeys.

The entire city comes alive with a name like Mughalsarai. I love it. I love it. I love it.

To me, there is nothing like living in a present which is simultaneously steeped in the stories of the past. It is our loss if we hold ourselves apart from the land we live on and its untold histories.