Rediscovering the legacy of my Patiala
A proud Patialvi realises that he knows his home town’s famous food joints better than its rich history and goes on a journey to undo his ignorance
There was a time when I proudly called myself a ‘Patialvi’ despite really not knowing my own city too well. I could list many facts about many things, but if you asked me about the stories of Baradari or the trees lining our roads, I would fall silent because I really had not much knowledge about these iconic places of my home town.
My real safar with Patiala began one soft winter morning inside the Baradari Gardens, when I wandered into the old Fern House. As a child, I remembered it only as a strange iron structure we would rush past. But that day, I stepped in and noticed the filtered light, the cool, moist air and the delicate ferns holding their ground against time and neglect. For a moment, the noise of the city disappeared.
Standing there, I realised that I had known about Patiala’s food joints better than its ferns, fountains or forgotten corners. After this realisation hit me, I started walking slowly not for my fitness but for familiarity. The gardeners there became storytellers, regular elderly walkers turned into historians, and the Baradari stopped being just a ‘park’ — it became a living archive of the city’s changing rhythms.
In returning to the Fern House and learning to honour such quiet spaces, I discovered that Patiala is a relationship you must renew on foot, one unhurried round at a time.
Ravee S Aahluwalia, Patiala
