Chasing a Memory: The Balmy Breeze That Wasn’t
A shot of the Queen's Necklace, Marine Drive at night from Nariman Point, with flood lights in full bloom at Wankhede and Brabourne Stadiums. I don’t remember how or where I first heard it, but the phrase has been etched in my memory for over a decade. As far as I can recall, I was in school at the time, and if my memory serves me right, it was written in my English textbook. The full phrase might have been "...a balmy breeze blowing...", though I’m only certain of "balmy breeze". Something that has stuck with me all these years. But why? I have no idea. Every few years, it resurfaces like a flashback from a past life, leaving me restless. What does it even mean? No teacher explained it, and I never mustered the courage to ask. After all, how much could it really matter? Like most state board private schools, mine too focused on grades, not understanding. Our system has been built over centuries, and inertia is too strong for real change, alas, at the cost of tr...
