Big City, Small City

Small town. That's what they call the place I hail from. Unclear of what categorised this place as such, I used to feel intrigued by those big towns. The capital, IT hubs, those bars, pubs, "night life". Quite attractive a place to live in if you asked me then. Why didn't every city have that? Heck, I would have loved a life where I wake up to those sky scrapers, drive everyday to work on those busy streets, and come back home after a hectic night life, one where I just went out every damn night and had fun.

But what was fun then quickly turned into a let down soon after it became a reality. Those sky high buildings stopped being an excitement just after a week into the city, the night life just felt like a waste of my precious time I could easily spend sleeping, and driving through the city became a frustration, if not a chore.

What changed? Is it the age that's kicking in? If that's the case, it won't be long I start cribbing about the recklessness of every petty thing that comes my way. But I'm certain it's not that, as I had already given up on that fascination even before I was 24. May be it was the shabbiness of the big town's hustle that didn't feel exciting?  Part underdeveloped, part over engineered, it definitely gets quite confusing once you see both sides of the coin. Funnily, if you ever happen to visit Cyberhub (the most 'happening' place in Gurgaon), you'll witness strike difference in how the city has come through, through years. Fantastic architecture, eye catching hubs on one side of the over bridge, while slum's on the other. I've heard the same about other Indian cities too. May be that was setting me off.

Mirano Square - Simple, sweet, serene.

But even the towns that are probably the best developed in the world felt the same. I was always on the look out for a serene, less crowded place I could just walk past by. The outskirts of London felt better than the main city for example, not that Central London isn't great. It's amazing! But the lush green outskirts felt more like something I'd want to spend the weekends on. 

If you ever happen to visit Venice, I'll also recommend you to visit this beautiful town called Mirano. I fell in love with this place. Nothing fancy, a small Italian town with no tourist attractions as such. But it felt like it! It felt like a place where I would simply take my bike on a ride every day and not get tired of doing so. It felt better than Paris, Rome, Venice combined. It's just serene, disconnected from the nuances of the world, peaceful. That humbling nature of every resident out there, the patience, gentleness, those city fares and the long walks, can't get enough of it.  That just affirmed my aloofness from the big happening towns.

I feel like that grown up who prefers places one would like to settle down in. While that sounds quite like a thing, in my defence, those small towns aren't only meant for settling. The hectic life might start getting on to you once you start going with the flow. You just don't get the time to think it through, think about your life and introspect. And every now and then you might just like to be in a place that doesn't care who you are, who you are with, what's your story. Just let go off whatever's on your mind, take a sip of that coffee, sit back and live! Might sound like some philosophical bs I'm just trying to pull off. It does, I admit lol. But once you experience it, it's just too amazing that you'd want to live that experience every now and then. While there is immense opportunity in the big ones, the peace lies in the outskirts, the lush ones. You can embrace both, but you'll ultimately want to end up in one.

Cheers!