Thane with all it's glory

Though I believe Thane is not the the best place to live on earth...it is one of the most precious places. I have lived here all my life. I love this place to the core! After my stints at staying away from thane began I truly realised its importance in my life. After a stay of two years in Kuala Lumpur I am living thane since past six months. Knowing that I am going to move to some other place very near in the future I am valuing this noisy and colourful city all the more! As I ride my scooty, honk, make a crooked face when there is too much smoke, yell a bad word when someone spits, complain about the pits to myself, blame the government as we all do, forget about it the next moment as I window shop...I realise that all this is fun! Today a fact about this city struck me and made me write this post is that every street has a character and smell of its own. One street smells like wada pav, the next smells like an agarbatti,, the next smells like mogra and then there is one which smells like red mud! There are so many known faces to wave at, there is always a snack to munch on, there is always a shop that I have never been to and a shop I never miss. The transition of Thane at times is disturbing with its ever increasong vehicles and too much crowd. The old bunglows getting demolished to give birth to tall buildings. There is no chanewala, kulfiwala or gajrewala to shout out loud. There are no kids running around barefoot. And yet there is some invisible magnet which holds the goodness and the warmth intact. Some cities are too special for just being places. They are home in the true sense.