For Some Months, I Had Been Having This Strange Feeling About Idiaraba And Mushin. I Wanted To See The Place Again.

Perhaps, I Wanted To Be Reminded Of Something.

I Wanted To See The Place. It Had Çhanged.

I Took A Long Walk And I Was Reminded Of How It All Began. The Challenges And Most Especially The Greatest Moments I Ever Had. The Restless Run When Someone Shouted “Won De” And The Smiles Afterwards When We Realize “Won O De” (False Riot Alarm)

We Were Tough. Happy Too. Our Neighbours Wouldn’t Try To Despise Us. We Were Mostly All Mates. So I Have One Room And You Have A Room And Parlour With Two Different Doors And Not Linked. To Access Your Room, You Will Come Out Of Your Parlour To The Passage Then Open The Door To Your Room

Even If They Were Linked, There Were Always Other One Rooms In The House And We Would All Share The Same Bathroom And Toilet Anyway. So Technically, We Were All Mates.

From Ojuwoye, I Walked Down To Isolo Road And Strangely, I Had Become A Stranger In My Own Land. Well, The Lie I Told Myself Was I Had Dreadlocks Now So I Understood Why No One Could Recognise Me Again. Lies. I Have Become A Stranger In This Place I Spent Over 25years.

I Saw Jamganza Bookstores.

I Walked In.

No One Knew Me. I Knew No One. I Must Have Visited That Bookshop A Thousand Times. From Primary School To Secondary. Salesmen Left To Own Their Own Shops And All Of Them Knew Me. They Would Invite Me To Their New Shops And Would Share Different Stories With Me. I Would Buy From Them But I Would Still Return To Jamganza. We Had A Bond. Thankfully, It Is Still Standing.

So I Got To Junction To Take A Ride To Pako And It Was Funny I Had To Pay. No More “Staff”. They Didn’t Know Me. As A Kid,I Remember Staying Here To See One Of My Brother’s Friends Who Would ” put me in a motor” (better read in Yoruba). “Aburo Arasi” They Would Say.

We Drove Past Kayode, Awawu, Bakare, Morgan And Nepa Bus Stop. Even The Danfo Drivers Have Become Too Soft.

The Ride Was Too Quiet. No One Screamed. This Is Not My Mushin. Definitely Not My Pako Ride. In The 90s To Early 2000s The Ride Was Not Complete If No one Screamed “Driver E De Rora” (Driver Take It Easy).

Adebola Santa Ogunshina