One of the first things you do when you move to a new place is fix your feet firmly to the ground. No matter how many cities you move and no matter how old you get in the process, newness has a way of sweeping you right off your feet.
With my first salary in my pocket as I walked down the mall, I realized how much the past twenty five days have changed me.
How I don’t look at pretty things on spectacular window displays.
A place like Dubai with just shopping malls to entertain you can be pretty swaying. Apart from the temptation of all the beautiful things in the world there is also the temptation of losing yourself into something you totally are not.
I remember when I first felt the need to fix my feet firmly on the ground; it was when I just started working in the big, bad world of Bombay. The first Friday night was an eye opening experience to a world that went deeper than the rabbit’s hole.
There I was all of twenty one, very thin and with flawless skin trying to understand the simple and complicated ways of adulthood.
Drinking was simple but controlling post drinking behavior was complicated
Having sex was simple and legal but heartbreaks way too complicated
Monthly salaries were simple but the long hours at work absolutely not!
Everything I thought adulthood would be fun for was actually complicated in so many ways.
That’s when I learnt to fix my feet very firmly on the ground…
It didn’t matter if I got the promotion or the cute guy, what mattered was how peacefully I slept at night.
7 years, 10 kgs, many laugh lines and a diminishing bank balance later – I still need to hold myself when I move a city so that I don’t fall.
Every city has its lures and I guess it has to do a lot with age as well. Bombay had the lure of love, parties, booze and everything wrong. Delhi was indulgence and giving in to being a snob. Ahmedabad lured me into spending money – the chance to be reckless.
Dubai is trying to lure me into her whims and fancies very very slowly.
It’s the pretty things you see… That’s what dictates this city.
‘Pretty is not always beautiful’ someone told me once
Before I moved here I remember a conversation with a friend who said, “Dubai will change you and the way you look (probably the way you look inside)”
I have come to believe that this city can either make you look extremely pretty in your own eyes or very very ugly.
It is basically how well you avoid the pretty window displays.
5 comments:
Interesting take. Well received and understood.
At the end its all about how you choose to deal with people/situations in life and you're definitely on the right track.
God Speed!
Ohh annchal,
come to Tel Aviv :)) you would enjoy it hear so much.
-Simple vs complicated.... is wat you learnt and still came out with laugh lines... well not bad i must say....
-‘Pretty is not always beautiful’ well true but can u name anything thats not pretty but is beautiful... would be rare....
-its not abt avoiding the so-called pretty window displays, its but what you got on ur window display.
@ aarti - I hope I am on the right track ... time will only tell !!! LOL
@ Michali - would love to visit some day .... esp. soak in the culture.... :)
@ cheers to life -
beautiful is so much on the inside - so if u look at it everything is beautiful somehow... but pretty .. well .. u dont know... :)
and thats exactly what u need to have in your window display :)))
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