Circular Quay

 I was born in a city not very different from Sydney. It is the financial capital of India, has a harbour and is a melting pot of people who come to fulfil their financial dreams. So, Sydney as a city didn't feel like a stranger to me. The similarities of living in a city that feels more like a giant organism which changes and grows and sheds was sometimes the only comfort to me when I was homesick. The thought of just taking a bus/train/ferry to sit quietly and observe the sea of strangers go by their lives in the city calmed the storms brewing inside. It is ironic, I know, to find calm in chaos, but that is my simple truth.

And, if I saw Sydney as a living organism then Circular Quay is its left ventricle. I would go further and say it is my left ventricle. For those who don't understand, let me explain. A human has the right and left chambers of the heart. Each chamber is further divided into an atrium and a ventricle. While the atria accepts blood, the ventricles pump blood out. The right ventricle accepts blood which needs cleaning and so the right ventricle pumps it to the lungs. My right ventricle would me my hometown. The only place in this world that has the power to clean the grime that I accumulate as time passes me by. On the other hand, the left ventricle pumps all the good blood received from the lungs into the entire body. Circular Quay is Sydney's and my left ventricle because it has this magical ability to pump all this joy, calm and life force into the city and me. The mere energy of this place is so infectious that it is impossible to feel sad or negative. The moment you step out or past the train station it allows you to be sandwiched between the impressive Harbour bridge and the Opera house, which can never fail to make you acknowledge how trivial you cares and worries actually are.

I clearly remember one of the first times I decided to visit Circular Quay by myself. I was literally fighting back tears the entire train ride. I just wanted to run back home because the relationships I was surrounded with were suffocating me, but I couldn't. I couldn't run back home because I knew I would never be able to look myself in the eyes for not fighting through a situation that wasn't favourable. Anyway, the moment I stepped out of the station I felt the same overwhelming feeling I feel every time I visit. A feeling of calm, a feeling of joy and a feeling of stillness that I usually yearn for when I feel ravaged by emotions. I took a few steps forward and coincidently, a man was singing 'You are my sunshine' while playing his guitar. I enjoyed the song, paid him for the soothing his unintentional act of kindness brought and walked forward. After walking a little further and enjoying this infectious energy that I spoke of earlier, I found my happy place in Sydney.

My happy place is this bench that is situated just behind the Opera house. It is the most spectacular in all of Sydney. I have explored Sydney as much as I could afford before the pandemic and I have been to some pretty spectacular places all over Sydney. But, nothing and I do stress nothing is as spectacular as my happy place. You have the full view of the Harbour Bridge. You can feel the tall and strong presence of the Opera house behind you. And, you can watch countless cruise ships, ferries, boats and kayaks passing through a calm Sydney harbour much like so many emotions that pass through a human mind that in its most inert state is calm and deep. And, that was the first time I felt like I was a little less of a stranger in this city for I find that someone or something that can soothe a disquiet mind can never feel alien or foreign. Something or someone who can do that for a human mind builds an instantaneous positive connection. Like the ventricle, it has the ability to inject this very essential life force with no matter what energy, positive or negative, you step into Circular Quay.