What is it with places and conversations?

Have you noticed how some conversations get attached to particular places?
I mean real, actual places in the city that you live in.
Or lived in.
Or just visited on work.
Or on a holiday.
May be you had that conversation on phone,

Or with a co-traveller or in your mind.
Does not matter! 

These places just get attached to these conversations.
And when you rethink these,
the place gets replayed in your mind too. 

Once my friend Samik explained a thing about Compact Disks.
He said, "You must not let anybody store a video in a CD.
It mixes up the sound track with the video track."
And he added,
"These can not be isolated from each other.
These, then can no longer be used separately.
They don't give in to the editor's wishes, anymore. 
They have to be presented together. Always."

In that same way,
A highway, a fly over, a park, a subway, a hairpin turn
Get attached to conversations.
They get entwined in my head, in a strange moment of indiscretion.
Then I can't think of one without the other.
Whenever I think of these conversations, 
I see these places, in my mind's eye
And whenever I pass these places physically,
I can not help but remember these conversations.
It is uncanny! Spooks me at times!
But there is no running away from either.

You remember that new part of our city, where an elevated road has been built?
You can see a 16th century monument when you look leftwards.
You recognize that place, right?
I always remember these words whenever I pass by.
"I miss a place that is silent!
"The moment I spot that moment of tranquility, I will call you.
"The moment I am alone in that all pervasive emptiness, I will call you.
"The moment I feel it is one of those moments to do the silliest of things,
I will call you." 

These words play in my mind as I wait for that one call.
And whenever these words appear in my head, I know,
I can turn my head left-wise and spot that monument again.
Even when I am not on that elevated road. 


Then near the river, I always think of food.
That too egg rolls in particular! 
No. Don't laugh! I specifically remember this conversation about
Picking up warm rolls while I was approaching that river. 
I was very hungry that day
And when I am hungry, I repeat this ad infinitum
"I am hungry". "I am hungry". "I am very hungry."
I can not stop!
It was lovely to hear about rolls,'though I knew I could pick none. 
And every time I remember that conversation, the river appears too.

There is also that other road. Pretty nondescript.
It has no claim to fame whatsoever.
But whenever I pass by, even in my car,
I get transported to a slow moving cycle. 
The building moves ever so slowly .
Only this time, I can not hear the conversation. 
They were mostly spoken through eyes.
Or in words inaudible to the world.
And I am part of "the world" now. 

A conversation with a star, reminds me of a forest of tall trees.
I walked up a road while speaking to a star.
When I went back there after 5 long years,
I could not believe I walked that long.
All because of a conversation with a star! 

Some places remind me of my utmost efforts to explain, 
And my utter failures to do so.
Then there is that turn on the way back from office, which reminds me 
A long conversation with a new friend.
This was about a friend who did not quite remain a friend,
When I needed him.
But thankfully, the new friend remained.
And we still talk about him, at times.
Places also remind me of animated conversations to plan holidays.
I have anyway planned more than I have actually executed.

And then there are those roads going to nowhere
That keeps replaying in my mind with that conversation about nothing.
It's the conversation about nothing, that always takes me
To the road going to nowhere.

What is it with these conversations and places?
How do they get attached to each other? 
How does one disentangle them?
How do you forget some while keep some others alive forever?
I have not figured out. 
And guess what? 

I am not complaining!