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Originally Posted by Samurai As they say otherside always looks greener (pun intended). You only get to see the positives on short visits. Living in small towns/villages involves lot of compromises and sacrifices, especially if you are used to city life. Do you realise I need to travel 400+Kms to Bangalore if I need K&N filter, synthetic engine oil, privacy, like-minded friends or many such simple things we take for granted in cities? |
I can vouch for that. The lack of amenities is rather unsettling. Night journeys freak me out too, especially when I'm wide awake to absorb everything outside the bus windows, and especially so when I can't sleep when in motion. The bus stopped in the night around 3.30 AM at some small town types, because everybody wanted to pee. So I got off, to pee and even so more to smoke. Almost instantly, images of Naxalites jumping out the woods with arms and ammo flashed through my mind. I feel safer, walking at 2 am in Mumbai, and I have done it, probably more so because of familarity of territory. The house we lived in, had everything, TV and proper lights and fans and DVD player and all that, but it was still unnerving. Knowing that when we would stop talking, we would be surrounded by this eerie silence. Pitch dark and silence. It's weird.
In cities, we choose our homes wrt how many schools are around, and medical facilities and 24x7 water supply and all that jazz. I didn't see a hospital in Kundapur, I'm sure there was one, but probably made out of a shack. The closest school was in Hemmady, I think, still good 5-6 kms away, kids go cycling to school. Good exercise you say? Not so, when the Volvo I was travelling on almost ran 3 school kids off the road, they take the same road to school everyday. The same Volvo driver in 10 other buses also takes the same route everyday, not to mention a gazillion Sri Durgambeshwari Travels, and what not.
But village folk are a lot less paranoid, daily hectic grind in cities is killing us. They don't seem any less happier. They are always smiling, do their share of work in the day, rest in the afternoons, eat fresh catch from the rivers, healthier at 60 then I am at 22. Pretty well off village too, maybe one of the luckier ones, reasonable supply of electricity, maybe 45 mins or so cut in a day. We always had water supply, pretty clean too, never once fell sick.