Balcony
I love the balcony. The tiny platform, projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, has seen many a tale unfold for mankind. My own house in Calcutta didn’t have one, but the rooms that I lived in subsequently, had balconies. When I was working near Delhi in an ad agency, I lived in a top floor room having a west-facing balcony floored with marble. I spent close to six months in that room, throughout autumn, winter and spring. After that, I lived in institute accommodation in the middle of a wilderness about fifty kilometres from Delhi. The campus was surrounded by hills in all directions, and was a sight for sore eyes from the monsoon season, through winter, till spring. I exclude the summer months as it is difficult to distinguish this place from the Kalahari Desert during that time. In this place, I lived on a first floor room with an east-facing balcony for two and a half years. It was in Gurgaon, bordering Delhi in the South, that I...