update after such a long time!! extremely sorry for the delay. life does not go as planned always :'(
i'm going to write a lot about Jalpaiguri here. it was mentioned in the previous chapter that it's a district in the north of West Bengal, a province in the eastern part of India. i have a huge emotional connection with Jalpaiguri. and whatever i have written in this chapter is kind of how i, myself, view the place. certain names have been changed of course. but moreover, it is the Jalpaiguri i have seen since childhood.
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"WHAT WERE you saying about the hints?" Vrishank asked.
We were currently at the Sealdah Station waiting for the Darjeeling Mail to arrive. According to Vaidehi's plan we had set out for Jalpaiguri in search of Aimée Monet.
My grandparents used to reside there. I was ten when my Dadu (grandfather) passed away. Didiya (grandmother) shifted to Kolkata after living there for 45 years. After that the visits to Jalpaiguri became infrequent and I barely used to go. But I did have a very clear picture of what the small town looked like those years ago.
I remember seeing the rickshaw pulling into the streets; the garment stores, book stores, salons, confectionaries, small residential buildings lining the roadside along with a fair amount of mini bushes and tall lean trees. Stalls of momos, phuchkas (golgappas) and vendors walking with flavoured candy floss were the main attraction. Roadside hotels used to be a big deal at that time. They served the scrumptious quality food at a reasonable cost. The cats and dogs minded their own businesses unless disturbed.
At that time if someone asked me where I liked it better I would not have been able to answer. Because Kolkata and Jalpaiguri couldn't be compared. They both were different and very close to my heart. I remember how I used to be overly enthusiastic about paying a visit there. Jalpaiguri was a part of my vacation life. However, that tie began to loosen after Dadu left. I could not afford to go there again and feel the heartache. I didn't understand if it was just the people that kept me excited or the place itself. I guess it was both. I guess it was just Dadu and Didiya whom I went there for. Or maybe it was Jalpaiguri herself, that I had developed an emotional connection with.
It had been six years since I cut my ties with the place. I was going back there, owing to Aimée.
"Oh yeah, um, so..."
On our way to the station, I was telling Vrishank about the hints that we, specifically I, failed to spot all this time.
"What do you mean that her parents were having sex?"
"You would have figured it out too. It was pretty obvious. The messy hair, crumpled clothes and those swollen lips. Like, what kind of parents even have the mood to have sex after knowing clearly that their daughter was missing?"
