Lahore.

 There's something in the evenings of that city. The dusk is really 'dusky'. Romantic. Alluring. Poetic. It is a definitive spot between night and day and not just a hasty period of overlap between the two domains. Don't ask me what it means. Stand in the middle of the street in the narrow corridors of old Lahore as the evening prayers come to an end and the dark blue sky spreads over the horizon, and you may feel what I am saying. But It is not just the experience of the ones whose feet are more familiar with the perils of unequal grounds. You can feel this in your stilettos on the top floor of a popular restaurant while craning your neck to see the sun setting down between the houses. You will feel this if you are not in a rush. ( In life you will feel many things only if you are not in a rush)  You can feel this as the car next to you blasts Punjabi songs when you stop at the traffic signal next to Neher on your way back from office. The people of the city mark the evening with a definite shift in their behaviors. The mood of the city turns over. At evening, Lahore becomes a city of shadows and whispers. Add winter to it and it becomes a setting conducive for an epic romance.

  Think of the the large forbidden grounds of Punjab University covered in fog, and the lure it must present to two lovers toiling in its campus. It seems possible to be lost there. Fog has this tempting character of promised oblivion.They can be conveniently lost if they are daring, until they are discovered by the Jamia. That is Lahore for you, love and sanctions co exist side by side. But love wins, ever so often.

 You know the way I think about places now is that..even though they are non living, they have the upper hand over their short term inhabitants. People come and people go, political and social climates keep shifting. Poetry is read and art is made. At different times Lahore was, and will continue to be claimed by different people but the characters always vanish and the place stays.

Lahore stays. Magnificent, magical, mysterious; keeping its inhabitants entrapped in an unforgiving nostalgia during their limited span of existence.