02 Civil Lines

What does ”Civil Lines” mean?

No, this isn’t some poetry-slam-esque attempt to give myself a cool (or semi-cool) pen name. I’ve told friends that if I were to use a pen name, it would 1000% be Cash Longboard. Don’t ask me why, but good luck walking past the bookshelf and not picking up a book written by Cash Longboard. Intrigue is half of the battle, my friend. As I wrote that last sentence, the Gossip Girl narrator’s voice popped into my head, which tells me that I’m not being authentic here, so I’m gonna pull out of this tailspin and start with a new paragraph.

Civil Lines were neighborhoods/pockets in certain cities in India where the British (read: upper class white folks) would reside. This was a clear line of segregation (as if the phrase ”Civil Lines” didn’t already convey that image); it was a place where Indians did not go. One of those cities happens to be Allahabad, where my mother is from. Allahabad is an interesting city – it sits where two major rivers (the Ganges and the Yamuna) and a third mythical one (the Sarasvati) meet. Not only is this important for economic reasons, but this sangam (“confluence”, ”meeting”) has deep religious value as well. Anyways, my mother’s city was carved into two very clear areas – an area where her ancestors could traverse, and an area where they could not. Fast-forward to post-revolution, that heinous demarcation does not exist. Civil Lines in Allahabad is now an area of shops, houses, and buildings – filled with Indians and non-Indians alike. It is akin to vines along a garden wall – you can try to stop it, but it is, as my boy Thanos would say, inevitable.

I am the son of my parents. My pen carries their stories, pain, heartbreaks, and happiness. When I was born, I am sure they filled me up with their hopes for what kind of life their son would have. As their hopes made their way into the front door of my brain, their stories, pain, heartbreaks, and happiness snuck in through the back. I would love to honor their hopes (aka go back and become a doctor). But like the vines on a garden wall, my love for stories and writing have found a way to fight gravity and take root.

Civil Lines is more than just a street in Allahabad.

XoXo, Gossip Girl