Small town girl

My father was in the Army( he is now retired and is a commercial pilot) so most of my childhood i spent moving from one town to another .I have grown up small army stations like Leimakhong ( Manipur), Dhrangdhra in Gujrat, Devlali in Maharashtra...I mean, Ambala Cantt. was my idea of a big city till I came to Delhi.
So when I came to Delhi after two years in a boarding school, I was apprehensive, scared and at the same time I was not interested. For the first time in my life I did not want to make new friends.
Although I decided to close myself this time was because the latest separation had been way too painful,  a small part of me knew that i was a misfit here. I was a small town girl and this is a big city. This was Delhi.

I remember I had come to Delhi once in class four to meet my  relatives  and while I was traveling in an auto my eyes started to water because there was too much smoke. From places where the whole town happened know each other to a place where you tend to not know your neighbor, the change was drastic and disconcerting.
Two years down the lane, I did make friends, I did settle down.
It took me longer than ever before but as always I ended up just fine.
But here's the  real thing. I studied two years in    DPS, by the time I passed out, I walked the walk and talked the talk .I was fine, but I was still a small town girl . I still hated the crowded markets, malls and south ex did not excite me. And I hated sarojni nagar and dilli haat ( although i must have been there only twice in the two years of school) because the crowd freaked me out. I hated that everybody lived so far from each other, I hated that I had to live in flats and was happy in school and miserable before and after it. Even when I was alright, I wished that I could see the stars at night  like i used to in Sabathu , after it had rained, because that's one of the privileges big city people don't get. The pleasure of simplicity.
When I started applying for colleges, I was at the rock bottom. When I came To Kamala Nehru College,Delhi university.I could not have been worse.
This is where it all starts for me. I  LOVE this city. Mostly Thanks to LAKSHYA ( the theater society  that i am a part of) and also thanks to my new friends, But I have been around the city, shopped for L.B.D.s for Rs 25.. traveled from Okhla to Indraprastha in a bus at 7 pm, Sarojni is an everyday affair, Dilli Haat is my fav., i love the people, the way the are, the slang, the code of conduct, I love the ;lechy men  who stare at you on the road, i love the flyovers the green and red DTC a.d LOVE the metro, i love India gate, I LOVE C.P., I LOVE  Dwarka with the redis that have New York style head bands all for 10 bucks, the rikshawalahs, te hookas and the thekas.
The realization of my love for this city fell upon me when I was at CP, I had just got a pair of jeans stitched at Mohan Singh Palace and I was waiting for DTC 500 so that I could go back to college. I had to wait for quite some time, I had to then go to Jantar Mantar and take a 544 instead. That's when I realised that I loved this city, because it gave me the one thing that  I craved  for the most all my life: FREEDOM. Its true that every-time I go to a new place I do end up loving it. but this one is different, I don't just lov ethis place because ii have settled down I love it because i have logical reason to. Like there are all kinda of people here, from those who love metal to those who love Dylan to those who love both to those who love both. This city has got a chat ki dukaan every 500 meters . This city have got the most horrible auto wallas but also the most chatty and helpful ones. This city has culture.

I am a small town girl and live very happily in a big city