It's been five months already since I moved here. The city offered me a better career option, which I gladly took up.. the decision being fueled by my long standing itch to settle down in life. I should point out here, that "settling down" in my dictionary doesn't mean getting married and having babies.. it's about finding a place you can call home. When you've spent 12 years jumping cities all over the country (and beyond), all you want is home.
This is a nice place.. the local people have a quirky sense of warmth, which at times I quite enjoy basking in.. but it does lack the strong buzz that all my previous addresses had to offer. Paul Graham, in his essay 'Cities and Ambition', says - "Great cities attract ambitious people. You can sense it when you walk around one. In a hundred subtle ways, the city sends you a message: you could do more, you should try harder." Kolkata nudged me towards the finer things in life (which, of course, I realized only after I'd left).. Bangalore gave me that first taste of independence.. Mumbai taught me that hard work, with a bit of heart, trumps all.. Delhi showed me a whole new perspective to power... but Pune, nothing till now.
Maybe that's why I've started to love this city. With her complete lack of expectations from me, I now have the freedom to embrace my restlessness.
