Can I get a city in a small town, please ....
I am a small town boy - I was born and raised in Madurai, studied in Pilani and I have lived in Raleigh, North Carolina for the last few years. The only time I lived in a big city was when I did an internship in Bangalore in 2002.
Big cities have fascinated me. A plethora of restaurants, glamorous clubs, exotic & unconventional people, great entertainment, huge buildings and a certain disdain for "villagers".
I always wished to live in a big city. To be in the middle of the action, to see these huge buildings and meet the exotic people everyday.
And now, I finally got my wish ! I have lived in Chennai for the last month. And at the end of it, I have realized one thing - Cities are'nt all that they are made out to be. Yes, there are great opportunities for education, entertainment and other activities, but there is an almost equivalent amount of negatives in the form of traffic snarls, pollution, distances and crowds that one has to accept.
And people in cities are jaded. Or atleast, I feel jaded after a month in the city. Human relationships are extremely transactional here and I feel that the "oh-I'm-so-cool, whatever !" sneer that I once aspired to, is not a veneer, but the actual person !
I long for the big open spaces, the familiarity of knowing everyone, the friendliness of small towns. Where one knows the owners of every expensive car, where life is simple, where people are genuine ...
Is there a perfect compromise ?
Is there a place with all the advantages of a small town, whilst also having most of the features of a large city ?
As far as I have seen, Phoenix, Arizona seems fairly close.
In India, to some extent, Coimbatore, Pondicherry & Pune (because of their proximity to large cities), Ooty/Kodaikanal, Cochin, Simla.
Cities are great for a short visit, but I need to find a small town real fast :-)
Big cities have fascinated me. A plethora of restaurants, glamorous clubs, exotic & unconventional people, great entertainment, huge buildings and a certain disdain for "villagers".
I always wished to live in a big city. To be in the middle of the action, to see these huge buildings and meet the exotic people everyday.
And now, I finally got my wish ! I have lived in Chennai for the last month. And at the end of it, I have realized one thing - Cities are'nt all that they are made out to be. Yes, there are great opportunities for education, entertainment and other activities, but there is an almost equivalent amount of negatives in the form of traffic snarls, pollution, distances and crowds that one has to accept.
And people in cities are jaded. Or atleast, I feel jaded after a month in the city. Human relationships are extremely transactional here and I feel that the "oh-I'm-so-cool, whatever !" sneer that I once aspired to, is not a veneer, but the actual person !
I long for the big open spaces, the familiarity of knowing everyone, the friendliness of small towns. Where one knows the owners of every expensive car, where life is simple, where people are genuine ...
Is there a perfect compromise ?
Is there a place with all the advantages of a small town, whilst also having most of the features of a large city ?
As far as I have seen, Phoenix, Arizona seems fairly close.
In India, to some extent, Coimbatore, Pondicherry & Pune (because of their proximity to large cities), Ooty/Kodaikanal, Cochin, Simla.
Cities are great for a short visit, but I need to find a small town real fast :-)
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