A tale of 5 cities

The last few months have gone away without any specific interesting incident/profound thought worth writing about. But still when I take a woods view of the experiences at each of the cities I have been to, every city has a unique story to tell, different from others and giving the place a distinct flavor.

Jamshedpur reminded me of the Ahmedabad of 90s. Things that we now take for granted were not readily available then. So when we had to buy a few dozen of dvds there was only one shop in the entire town which we could rely on, not to mention it proved itself truly unworthy of its reputation. The stay at xlri was astoundingly lazy except for a game of football and the dunking war.

Ahmedabad didn’t surprise at all. Felt like running away the moment I stepped on it and yet at the time of leaving the city I wished I could stay for a few more days. The recurring dream made its rare reappearance, this time semi-invited but wasn’t too sticky.

Bombay made me feel like Job of the ‘Book of Job’, and also like Alice of the Alice in wonderland (things that you read about happening to you, only this time in reality). I started to believe that the entire world was conspiring against me. A 5 kg lock with no matching keys to welcome me, a stolen mobile, missed buses, lost camera accessories were a bit too many mishaps for week long stay.

The news of Chennai training came as a pleasant surprise, anything that postponed real work was welcome. The three weeks I spent there fundamentally changed my views about myself. I could actually remember roads and places, never ever have I been so local geography savvy. By the time I left the city I had become an authority on theatres, restaurants, beaches, malls and autowalas of the town. I could speed-sms (without looking at the keypad, of course), a monumental achievement for someone who had cumulatively written not more than a dozen messages. I discovered my amazing ability to converse with people in languages mutually alien to each of us. Hours of casual talk with fishermen of Pondicherry and equally long haggling sessions with autowalas readily come to mind. I discovered that in my case, first impressions are never the lasting ones and in all likelihood they are quite the opposite. The last one sums up my evaluation of the city pretty well, the first impression not so difficult to guess ;)

Delhi has been strange, difficult to understand. It is good and bad to you alternatively, not unlike Eric Idle in the ‘meat sketch’ and the places seem familiar and yet new at times. A tough nut, will crack it sooner than later.