<p>I was born in 1959 in Kaithal, a small town in Haryana. I spent my childhood and teenage years there, completing my schooling and graduation by the age of 18. After obtaining my Bachelor of Arts degree, I moved to Chandigarh to pursue a Master’s degree in English from Panjab University.</p>.<p>For the first time away from home, I stayed in a university hostel for two years, where most of my classmates were from outside Chandigarh. When we first met, the inevitable question was, “Where are you from?” My answer, naturally, was Kaithal.</p>.<p>Though I asserted Kaithal to be my hometown, my family’s roots lay elsewhere. My father and grandfather were known as ‘Pundri wale’ (people from Pundri), a nearby village where my father was born and brought up. My father, a bright student, went on to study law at the University of Delhi. As there was no court in Pundri, he moved to Kaithal, the nearest town with a kuhcheri (Court), where he established his law practice and eventually got married. I was born in Kaithal, where I spent the first 18 years of my life.</p>.Guns are woven into the life of shooter's hometown.<p>After completing my studies, I found a job, entailing transfers, in a public sector bank. I kept moving from one place to another in across different states.</p>.<p>At each new posting, I would be asked where I belonged, and my <br>response would always be Kaithal, <br>as that was where I grew up. Even after retirement, when I settled in Panchkula, Haryana, my answer remains <br>the same. I got married soon after starting my job. My daughter was born during my first posting at Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh.</p>.<p>As I moved to different places, my family did not always accompany me, to avoid disrupting my daughter’s education. She spent her childhood in Panchkula, Hisar, and Chandigarh. Her schooling was split between Panchkula and Hisar (both in Haryana). She did her BA, LLB in Chandigarh. After a brief stint with a senior lawyer at Chandigarh, she landed a job at New Delhi.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Following in my footsteps, my daughter joined a transferable job in a bank and got married to someone already living in New Delhi. After completing her tenure in Delhi, she is currently posted in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. By the age of 35, she has already lived in six different places. Her longest uninterrupted stay was 10 years in Chandigarh, and the shortest was four years in Moradabad.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Children born to parents in transferable jobs, who later join similar professions, often struggle to pinpoint their hometown.</p>
<p>I was born in 1959 in Kaithal, a small town in Haryana. I spent my childhood and teenage years there, completing my schooling and graduation by the age of 18. After obtaining my Bachelor of Arts degree, I moved to Chandigarh to pursue a Master’s degree in English from Panjab University.</p>.<p>For the first time away from home, I stayed in a university hostel for two years, where most of my classmates were from outside Chandigarh. When we first met, the inevitable question was, “Where are you from?” My answer, naturally, was Kaithal.</p>.<p>Though I asserted Kaithal to be my hometown, my family’s roots lay elsewhere. My father and grandfather were known as ‘Pundri wale’ (people from Pundri), a nearby village where my father was born and brought up. My father, a bright student, went on to study law at the University of Delhi. As there was no court in Pundri, he moved to Kaithal, the nearest town with a kuhcheri (Court), where he established his law practice and eventually got married. I was born in Kaithal, where I spent the first 18 years of my life.</p>.Guns are woven into the life of shooter's hometown.<p>After completing my studies, I found a job, entailing transfers, in a public sector bank. I kept moving from one place to another in across different states.</p>.<p>At each new posting, I would be asked where I belonged, and my <br>response would always be Kaithal, <br>as that was where I grew up. Even after retirement, when I settled in Panchkula, Haryana, my answer remains <br>the same. I got married soon after starting my job. My daughter was born during my first posting at Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh.</p>.<p>As I moved to different places, my family did not always accompany me, to avoid disrupting my daughter’s education. She spent her childhood in Panchkula, Hisar, and Chandigarh. Her schooling was split between Panchkula and Hisar (both in Haryana). She did her BA, LLB in Chandigarh. After a brief stint with a senior lawyer at Chandigarh, she landed a job at New Delhi.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Following in my footsteps, my daughter joined a transferable job in a bank and got married to someone already living in New Delhi. After completing her tenure in Delhi, she is currently posted in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. By the age of 35, she has already lived in six different places. Her longest uninterrupted stay was 10 years in Chandigarh, and the shortest was four years in Moradabad.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Children born to parents in transferable jobs, who later join similar professions, often struggle to pinpoint their hometown.</p>
