Small town girl,brought up in a place with a mix of culture, yet a place with a definition of it's own.
With amenities just as well placed,the infrastructure and the transportation system planned like any other city this place was far from the hue and cry of the metro life. It had it's own character, while families depended mostly on income from the steel plant at the heart of the city, men had a 9 to 5 job , children got good schooling and a decent social life too, women had the most to be offered with regular kitty parties and flexible job options.
Me as a kid in the city was exposed to the teenage life, wherein going to school used to be fun cause you would have people with your own kind of thoughts to socialise with. after school hours would be just as much fun with new cafes and eateries popping up every other day just to attract this crowd, but yet then this town never lost its significant position when it comes to children being successful, say in education or extra curriculars or even in life's moral lessons.
I still remember those days when sitting and having dinner at a restaurant with your family would be fun with everyone talking to each other instead of talking to the world outside over the phone while being physically present on the same table. When a get together with good food and good music at home would be much more cherish-able than the loud music at the pub, when grades of every next guy would be criticized by the aunties at the kitty parties,but which somehow just inspired us to be better, where moral values are what people lived by, kiddish though but dating anyone had a protocol, hiding your affairs from your parents (who by the way would always act to be ignorant about it) was fun, bunking tuition to hangout with your friends wouldn't be a crime if done once,but god forbid you if you keep on repeating it.
Small though, routine though life had a meaning a path to follow,a goal to achieve.
When good name in the society would inspire you to better yourself as a person, in turn keep you away from trouble.
When your neighbour would for a change talk good about you,or say that family on the next street where you used to go cycling would wanna get their son married to you, you know you should have been a really good ,decent child .
But as they say change is inevitable, we all change with time, so much so that now if i meet my school friends it's hard to adjust with the changed circumstances.Good or bad we all get to live a different life.
A new freedom,new thoughts, new surroundings, peer pressure, home sickness ,loneliness everything keeps on pressuring you to do something different everyday,small small things change you in big way,when suddenly a day comes you don't recognize yourself anymore.
Your mirror shows you a new better version of you, but your heart still longs to be the same.
There comes a time when you realize all those years you had put a dust cover on yourself, this is not what you are.
You are better, you could do better, you could remove the dust and get your heart in place..
That's where your home plays a very important role.
A visit now and then reminds you of who you were, what you wanted to be, what or who really matters, a picture of how you had been brought up for the good.
A simple meal,A heart to heart conversation with your family, that bed which gives you a peaceful sleep, that balcony showing you familiar loving faces ( not people putting on masks), the grounds you played on, and that lover boy you ditched ;p ...
You find yourself back...and there is a possibility that it is for the best.