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Sunday, November 25, 2007

Small City Dreams

An unshaved face, a stinking jeans, a dirty t-shirt, Kapil's wrist watch, drinking frooti just before it, this and a whole lot of superstitions, nothing worked. Six months of stupidly wasting time was followed up with disappointment and nothing more. Six months of screwing up my brain, with just 3 movies (2 were at the end of period when it was getting closer), 2-3 canceled outings, Diwali* away from home, all this amidst hell lot of work pressure at office, night outs, nothing worked. I had a realization the day I gave it, that why people leave this country, so much struggle to get anywhere that people get really pissed off. Anyway I decided on something else though.

I want to move to a smaller city, much much better than going to a country where no one knows you (this would be a bit different in my case, as I would be still Desi for them :)). So new vision statement for life was drafted,
Small City, Medium Money, Small Dreams, Lots of Happiness
Money has been kept medium as of now, but even small is Ok. I am tired of hearing about,

  • People taking EMI's to run there life, take a home in Bangalore and pay up for next 20 years. Buy a car and pay up for next 4-5 years.
  • People using credit cards to run there life.
  • People stuck in traffic for half there life and profanity-fying the condition of Bharatiya Roads.
Basically I am pissed of city life, after living 17 years in a township in Korba, Chattisgarh and four years of engineering in an extremely peaceful Gandhinagar, this is all too much for me to take. I think its better to strip down on your Monetary ambitions if you get happiness in exchange. The thing is after seeing so much, going to small place won't be much of an issue for me atleast, there maybe difficulties initially but in long term it would be much more effective. In return I get,
  • A HAPPY family life...
  • A nice home with lawn and jhoola in it :D
  • Kids who don't pass out in pubs and watch movies for 25 Rs...:)
  • Me watching movie for 25 Rs
  • Neighbors who atleast talk
  • Cheap vegetables, cheap commodities, cheap most of the things.
Even if I earn what I am earning now for the rest of my life at a small place, it surely would mean much more savings for me than me living in Bangalore. Maybe I am thinking too long term, but anyway one has to do it. Smaller towns and cities stay better as the big cities grow, the "Supposedly" successful crowd moves city wards, small remains mostly the same. although I am worried by the Mall-ification of these places too but most of them, I expect to be quite stable even in case of economic swings. Thinking about what I can do there,
  • A sarkari naukri, but extremely difficult to get that one.
  • Moving into Public Sector...
  • Moving into things like Manufacturing etc. which maybe the industries at these places.
  • Goto a small place, start my own petrol pump, a halwai shop and a hotel.
All this will come up sooner or later, lets see how this stupid MBA thing goes on, one thing is for sure, I have had it enough for a lifetime here in a city.

*Diwali Celebs were quite different this time, though I missed being at home but this is what we did for Bangalore Diwali,
  1. Got confused on Nark Chaturdashi as everyone in Bangalore celebrated that day itself :)
  2. One round of pooja at home on Lakshmi Poojan, couple of crackers bursted, prasad included Peda and Mysore Pak.
  3. Another bit of pooja at friend's house, 2-3 rounds of crackers (extremely low quality ones), and gobbled up lots of mithai
  4. Dinner menu included- Davangare Benne Dosa(Butter Dosa) from my favorite shop in NR colony. Followed up by a nice bottle of Wine.

22 comments:

Sur said...

u too! just the line of thought I've brooding on for days! having lived in small cities all my life, B'lore was a big change, love it for somethings but still crave for the small town life, want the best of both, donno if its possible though.

desh said...

:), the bests there outweigh the bests here
start planning, chattisgarh beckons :)

Unknown said...

:D Still swinging in between..I've lost half my brain (which i developed during my childhood days) thinking about MBA and future..The decision has to come quick coz i don't want to waste some more years and end up being in the same place where i want to move now :)

TheQuark said...

Nice thoughts you and Barve had shared earlier in lunch time bakar. But don't let it die as a rant.

I think it would be nice for you to go to the Robert Frost way

Gravity said...

maharaj
every time you write something like this it worries me and my frenz(your blog is quite popular amongst them)

Cuckoo said...

All the best !!

At least, you could think of going back. There are so many who have not experienced the warmth & luxuries of a small town. I think they are the real unfortunates.

A nice home with lawn and jhoola in it... You made me smile. :)

Parul said...

...and I used to think I was the only one who had such moments of madness...could relate to most of what you wrote here...how I wish life could get simpler again...
It's all mechanical...at times I indulge myself into the lure of leading a simpler life...back in the greens...a blue sky above and life all around...
Just when I'm reaching out to let it all go, the reality dawns in...
Sunday's getting over and it's monday again...thats the truth of life...take it or leave it... :)
Austere Alacrity

desh said...

@siddharth
yep yep
i got an offer from shiv goyal too, says come lets setup a bijness thr :)

@the quark
it mostly goes to junk doesnt it, lets see wht happens to this one

desh said...

@gravity
why does it worry u??? no idea
u too move back to bhopal and have a great time :)

@cuckoo
good tht made u smile :), even the thought of tht makes me all smiles :)

@parul
making thinks simpler is all we want, but its extremely difficult, lets hope for the best

anyway moments of madness r alwys thr for me :)

Parul said...

In case u havnt yet listened to a song called "The Animal song" by Savage Garden, then plz do...it's better than what its name suggests...u just mite like it... :)
cheers!

Austere Alacrity

Parul said...

that's Austere Alacrity

Cheers!

Gravity said...

great idea!

Ujj said...

wow!
you make it sound so poetic, but town life has its own problems, like poor administration, orthodox line of thinking, people being averse to change.

Point being, you need to adapt wherever you go. If thats the case then why not adapt to this lifestyle, which at least gives you the freedom to drink according to your preference.

huh ! said...

haan yaar .. kabhi kabhi lagta hai sab chhodh chhadh ke kahin chote se hill station par ek ghar bana lo :) .. chalo lets see ..

Smartalec said...

Awesome post, dude! Echoes my feelings totally!
For me the journey has been Raipur -> Gandhinagar -> Mysore -> Pune (you saw that we loved in the middle of nowhere there!) -> Ghaziabad! And believe me, whenever I'm in a big city, I can't seem to keep up with the pace of life there... no wonder I'd rather see myself happily settled in a small city or a town :) But then I'm sure I'll crib when I miss those occasional outings to the malls and multiplexes :p
The returns of living in a small city, as you've put it, seem so appealing! I agree that the smaller cities more or less remain the same for a long time, but they're losing their charm slowly... it was culture shock in slow motion when Raipur became the capital city of Chhattisgarh! I wonder how many more small cities are going to lose their virginity this way...

Liked the entire post but liked the following line the best:
I think its better to strip down on your Monetary ambitions if you get happiness in exchange

Dilip Ananthanarayanan said...

Hey Desi, dillo here. Totally agree with you on living the fast city life (if you can call it that). Do visit Chennai if you have the time, apart from the fact that people will not be speaking Hindi, you will find a great balance between tranquility and the bustle of a city life. Dont think i am promoting Chennai in anyway; for all the slack it gets from people outside, the city does balance on a bit of tradition and progressive lifestyle! That said, i guess we are a small fraction that love life the simple way, ask a pukka mumbaiite and am sure we'll get a hajaar reasons to be in Mumbai.

Dhairya Parikh said...

u know how i feel about this! NGO it is :D lets talk to akula.. :)

on a serious note..as usual ur posts cause a lot of bells to ring in the mind! this one is no exception..

desh said...

@ujj
now in so many days in bangalore, wht do u think?
gorakhpur aur gwarighat road vs. koramangala ya banashankari? :)

@ashu
Ruskin Bond banega kya :)

desh said...

@steve

it wud be difficult to go back now, and th lil thrills of malls and multiplexes, mujhe itna majja nahi aaya kabhi usme :)

but consider raipur after a few yrs, it wud be much more fun :)

desh said...

@dillo

although I have been to chennai only once (from what I can recall) my experience wht quite nice...and infact many who have lived in cities grew in suburbs/pockets of city which resembled town culture

and thru all these yrs, with help of my frnds I hav done a remote login to Chennai's T Nagar, evening on marina beach, eatin idlis at Murugan and Mysore Pak from anywhr

been to madurai, kanyakumari, ooty and Kodaikanal as a kid, south indian states reprsent simple living in a much better way than any other part of th country

about language, its secondary, once u start gettin along wth ppl, it hardly matters

abt simplicity, well its easy to complicate thngs as we have done with our MBA or even with how we live in city, but it wud be equally hard to get back to simple living again

desh said...

@dhairya

woh abhi nahi, lot of othr thngs to try frst, thngs wud fall in place :)

and who says u need to work in NGO to be in small towns, i hav researched a 1000 other ways :)

Sandy said...

halwai shop seems to be the best option.....petrol pump main bhi tension hi hogi....

think about a small ..ok medium sized halwai shop in korba selling mysore pak, original bengali mithai etc....