Life In A Metro...

What is the most convenient thing that people, especially ladies will resort to in free time..Gossiping! Its generally a favourite pass time, when one is thoroughly perplexed over how to kill time. These days I am having ample of it. Life was never so dull, so lengthy before. Its pace seems to have slowed down;but I hate this, everytime when I ask myself by the end of the day, before closing my eyes- What did I achieve today?...Was I a better human being today, than yesterday's? And when my conscience answers in negative, it pricks me; and I scorn myself over the mistakes committed throughout the day, and promise that they won't get repeated. I ponder over the new things, thoughts, poeple, places I had encountered in the entire day. This practice has been going on for years by now, and I never have to give a second thought for this now-a-days.

A day or two before me and two of my lady colleagues had a nice chat in the discussion rom. Nops, it was not about work. Now everyone knows by experience, that when the fairer sex chats for hours together, it has never to be related to work,(not even a fake possibility !) So to say, we were chatting about the most interesting topic- lifestyle!! One married lady asked me,(that to out of the blue), "Do you drink?" I was taken aback...!!! My God! Do I look like that..I expressed the same."What has that got to do with the appearance? Now most gals do, don't they?" she retorted. Then she went ends together with how she goes to the pubs, discos with her hubby, drinks, night life and experiences there. She was blowing trumpets how she had being a village girl, now totally transformed into a cosmopolitan woman. Very Good!! I exclaimed. This has been an exponential rate of progress..that too within a span of no less than two years.

The other girl listening to all this stuff, was not so much surprised as I was- though she refrained from all this, but had duly witnessed certain situations the former lady had mentioned. Well she knew all things that go round, it was her brother who used to keep her updated with all the news. Then she had her part of experiences, and those that she described I felt what is picturized on the silver screen is far much lesser and decent than the crap she was telling. All Page3 stuff; experiences at work from the male counterparts, abusive languages and signs, disgusting advances and all that...My God! "this really happens...? I thought its just projected stuff". "Are yeh to bachhi nikali, ise to kuch bhi pata nahi"
"But why it never happened to me?"I questioned. "Kyun ki tu bahut khadus lagati hai !"she remarked.

Ohh..did I, really? I started introspecting myself. So whatever I am, am I so called underdeveloped, unpolished, devour of all the urban life? Why don't I feel like doing all this? What is stopping me? Pune and Bangalore are pretty same. Not much difference...so what was the difference? I never felt any urge, any need to indulge in these kind of things any way. I don't believe in yielding to any societal pressures, neither to I feel any necessity to pave by the social tabboos and stigmas, to folow the same paths which they I have labelled to be so called lifestyle. There is no lifestyle for me. I believe in following my own takes, devoid of any comments from whosoever.

Does life really change when someone comes from a village to a metro."In Rome, do as Romans do", they say. But do we really need to bend our principles, our values just to abide by the so called societal formalities. I don't see so. I will be the same wherever, whensoever, I go. I will never sacrifice my basic faiths in life for any company, any city, any person in my life-come what may. What is the person, who succumbs to peer presures, loses himself in achieving something, at the end of which he realizes he has attained a big "Zero". Life is too precious for that. I nurture my roots, and object to everything that go againt them. The veteran writer Shobha De quotes, "Mastering English does not necessarily mean becoming one"!!

To narrate another story here, back in my undergraduation days, I met Anagha- short dusky town girl, from Alibag, who had come to Poona with big dreams in her eyes. The only daughter of her parents, Anagha was quite startled with life and the people in her surroundings. She had some basic presumptions in life; no issues, it was not her fault, the way and the surroundings in which she was brought up. I consoled her for all the crisis she had undergone, supported her, and made her realize that her thinking was not wrong. Its the world which is blinded by false notions of pride and prejudices. The Laws of Nature are the same everywhere. God treats everyone in the same fashion, with no partialities, so she need not worry and keep things in her own way. She was convinced for the moment. Was thankful to me, had wrote touching letters to me, before leaving for the vacations.(those I still cherish)..but somehow time didn't help. She got a couple of subjects down that year, and the following year she lost completely. I went to meet her after that. She was astonished to find that I had come out of the way only to meet her. "You seem to be a changed person"..I asserted. She came back with an amazing line "Life teaches you everything dear, when I see my batch-mates proceeding further, when you sit at home alone; then you can't sit harping on the same string, but have to mend with the ways of the world". Life had changed her. No longer could I find the same old Anagha. She had surrendered herself to life, to the things around, only to be along with the world. Now she has a good job and thinks she changed for good. Ask me, honestly, she had paid the price of her own loss.

In my childhood, even I used to wonder, what it would be like in a big city, in a big world, big people, how things work on a massive scale.....only to find at this stage ..every thing is mean, too small than what I had imagined. Ironically people are planning big aims and games, in that fight losing the things they already possess. Fighting for life, but ignoring that life is already out of hands in the struggle. "A bird in hand is better than one in bush". I remember the Pardes dialogue wherein the heroine laments when asked how she finds it in the US, "Sab kuch hai;...kuch bhi nahi...." So true, so real!!At this point of time, I remember the famous illustration of Prof. Shivajirao Bhosale, a great orator and philosopher,"In the quest of the speices inhabiting on the neighbour of Mother Earth (Mars!), we forget that we don't know the name of them with whom we share a common wall with!!"

Quite Paradoxial..are these bad bad ways of the good good world !!

"Ek pal hai zindagi, ek pal kuch bhi nahi;
Kaheka gum kaisi khushi;
Khadi akena ek ghadi..!!"