Miss Explorer.
I chose this pseudo name for myself because I thought it best suited my ventures- travelling, writing, clicking and items that kept adding in my bucket list. However,this summer I realized,that I perhaps am, miles away from that title
I shifted to a new city last month . I sought a nice ventilated rented apartment, and moved in there post my stay at the company quarters. Out of pampering and pre-conceived notions of my 'excellent' domestic skills ,my mother boarded the next available train post the night I moved in, and helped me set up my new apartment.
This 58 year old lady who everyone had been titling as a dependent old woman, ventured out on her own while I was at work and explored the city more than I did in the past one month! When I hopped-skipped-jumped to tell her about the local market areas where we could by the home necessities, I fell flat on my face. She is thus, the original 'Miss Explorer'
My decision of moving into a Tier 2 city from a buzzing metropolitan Mumbai had sent shock waves amongst my friends and relatives. While some were excited, some wondered how a pampered child like me could stay all on her own. However, my parents supported my decision. I was going by my intuition of exploring a new world without a second thought of what lay ahead. But unlike me, my parents, my mentor, knew what I chose to step in and actively prepared me for it. They knew my pampering era was over and it was time to groom myself to be an adult,the kind I always sketched in my mind. So I took the big jump and shifted my base from one capital city to another.
Turns out I was not the only one in my early twenties jumping into something like this. My peers had been banking on opportunities much before I even anticipated the movement; even if it demanded them to stay away from home,even if it meant, to leave the comfort of Mumbai! I realized that our twenty-something gang is now not only exploring cities, countries across continents but also has been venturing towards cities and villages in our own country.
I fondly remember the hilarious conversations over a facebook chat with a friend, who's currently studying in U.S .We were contemplating whether I should buy a quilt or plain pull over during the Mega online sale.
We laughed our hearts out when we realized how our shopping trends had changed. I was then anticipating the list of items I would need to survive.
However I have been comforted by the plethora of experience I hear from friends who've moved away from Mumbai for work or education and now live in cities like Pune, Gandhinagar, Chennai, Kolkata and countries like U.S and Australia. We seem to be on the same boat. Trying the tested methods and amalgamating them with the new ones.
I believe that our twenty something saga is turning more of an exploring 'gatha' ( meaning, tales) today . For we belong to the generation who have perhaps learned to stride with globalization keeping our roots intact. We do appreciate authentic Italian pizza's but long for home made 'dal-chawal', we grove to jazz and pop, but our hearts find solitude in ghazals; we do speak flawless english, but are now yearning to master our native tongue and sanskrit.
A lot of my peers share my away-from home story. Yes,I do miss Mumbai wholeheartedly, but I am beginning to look forward to the interesting learnings that come by, for each city has a story to tell, a new lesson to teach ; and isn't home where the heart is ? 😉
I am just on page 1 of my new story ,where have you reached?
To all the wanderers... Cheers 🙌
I chose this pseudo name for myself because I thought it best suited my ventures- travelling, writing, clicking and items that kept adding in my bucket list. However,this summer I realized,that I perhaps am, miles away from that title
I shifted to a new city last month . I sought a nice ventilated rented apartment, and moved in there post my stay at the company quarters. Out of pampering and pre-conceived notions of my 'excellent' domestic skills ,my mother boarded the next available train post the night I moved in, and helped me set up my new apartment.
This 58 year old lady who everyone had been titling as a dependent old woman, ventured out on her own while I was at work and explored the city more than I did in the past one month! When I hopped-skipped-jumped to tell her about the local market areas where we could by the home necessities, I fell flat on my face. She is thus, the original 'Miss Explorer'
My decision of moving into a Tier 2 city from a buzzing metropolitan Mumbai had sent shock waves amongst my friends and relatives. While some were excited, some wondered how a pampered child like me could stay all on her own. However, my parents supported my decision. I was going by my intuition of exploring a new world without a second thought of what lay ahead. But unlike me, my parents, my mentor, knew what I chose to step in and actively prepared me for it. They knew my pampering era was over and it was time to groom myself to be an adult,the kind I always sketched in my mind. So I took the big jump and shifted my base from one capital city to another.
Turns out I was not the only one in my early twenties jumping into something like this. My peers had been banking on opportunities much before I even anticipated the movement; even if it demanded them to stay away from home,even if it meant, to leave the comfort of Mumbai! I realized that our twenty-something gang is now not only exploring cities, countries across continents but also has been venturing towards cities and villages in our own country.
I fondly remember the hilarious conversations over a facebook chat with a friend, who's currently studying in U.S .We were contemplating whether I should buy a quilt or plain pull over during the Mega online sale.
We laughed our hearts out when we realized how our shopping trends had changed. I was then anticipating the list of items I would need to survive.
However I have been comforted by the plethora of experience I hear from friends who've moved away from Mumbai for work or education and now live in cities like Pune, Gandhinagar, Chennai, Kolkata and countries like U.S and Australia. We seem to be on the same boat. Trying the tested methods and amalgamating them with the new ones.
I believe that our twenty something saga is turning more of an exploring 'gatha' ( meaning, tales) today . For we belong to the generation who have perhaps learned to stride with globalization keeping our roots intact. We do appreciate authentic Italian pizza's but long for home made 'dal-chawal', we grove to jazz and pop, but our hearts find solitude in ghazals; we do speak flawless english, but are now yearning to master our native tongue and sanskrit.
A lot of my peers share my away-from home story. Yes,I do miss Mumbai wholeheartedly, but I am beginning to look forward to the interesting learnings that come by, for each city has a story to tell, a new lesson to teach ; and isn't home where the heart is ? 😉
I am just on page 1 of my new story ,where have you reached?
To all the wanderers... Cheers 🙌
