There’s a phrase in my language called ‘khawtlang lunglen’ which literally translates into ‘communal/universal melancholy/nostalgia’.
Its when you miss no one or nothing in particular, and yet you feel an elusive longing for something…
It’s what makes our lonely bachelors pen songs and poetry, and makes our lonely maids (like yours truly) gaze out their windows at the clouds obscuring a crescent moon.
its what I feel everytime an old, obscure song comes up on the radio; what I feel when we have one of our innumerable power cuts and the neighbourhood kids dust off their guitars and sing old, old songs under the moonlight.
One of those feelings that are so universal, yet so hard to render into words.
I feel it tonight, and I miss all of you, and yet, I miss none of you in particular. I miss a certain way of life, but cant pinpoint what exactly it is I miss about it…
