And then comes the one moment, when you fall in love...

Sometimes, it takes a whole lifetime to discover your love for something. It might be immensely surprising that this newly discovered love would have been an element of your everyday life. You could have seen it very often, without emotion. You might have seen others admire it and put it off as just another part of life.

And then comes the one moment, when you fall in love.

The city of Hyderabad, I had always agreed was a great place to grow up. I have lived here, practically all my life till now. I travelled very less, and I hardly sat at home. So, I grew up in the city of Hyderabad. I was desperate to get out. I craved for a new place; any new place would do.

In Hyderabad, I am not sure if I got used to the common tourist spots, so they don’t entertain me greatly. The pollution and the insensible traffic always got over my nerves. I love the food this city has to offer; the Hyderabadi Chikan dumm Biriyani doubtlessly tops the list. I enjoy having chai from the tee-stalls.

People here and their strange attitudes surprise me. I know of girls, who took up the responsibility of a marriage, but hadn’t learnt to cook till then. I have seen my peers spend all their childhoods in coaching themselves for the IIT entrance. I have seen a couple of cases of girls who could ride bikes at an average of 70 kmph, but would leave it and take an auto home, if a tire went flat. I have had teachers who argued that cockroaches had blue blood, because that was what the book said. And, I still have neighbors who notice every guy that drops me home and gossip about it.

It has been a crazy ride.

I have been the crazy one sometimes too.

I drove my bike straight into a maruti van, and hid the embarrassment of my tears, jumping around screaming that I would finally learn riding, ‘because’ I had fallen. I slapped an elderly lady at the age of ten, because she had spoken something bad about dad, and never regretted it. I have travelled in the huge RTC buses and in the ‘seven seater’ autos that are typically loaded with eleven adults (and maybe 20 kids). I lectured a pair of roadside Romeos troubling me on the street, that they were bothering a girl who had lost her dad just a day back; I am sure they would think of me every time they plan on pestering any other woman on the street. I had only brought my father back to life for ten more years, what loss!

The attitude of someone who lives in Hyderabad, defines it as a place. Or maybe Hyderabad itself, defines the attitude of its people. It is capable of giving you a wholesome life- Ups and downs, richness and poverty, hard work and lethargy, software and slums, Hyderabad and Hyderabad- it comes as a package, totally worth the experience.

In Hyderabad, I learned to live. I learned to love.

One evening, I was driving back home, when I noticed, what tourists manage to notice on their first visit to Hyderabad- The beauty of the Hussain Sagar and the monolithic Buddha within the lake. And there, I fell in love with this city.

Life, is never like we want it to be. It might get a little worse than our expectations. It might get far better than we hope for. But either way, life is never what we want it to be.

It is not that unfair after all… that you fall in love with an old friend, only when you look  at newer prospects for romance. You almost take a new job, when you feel like you had had a job of your dreams all this while. You want the chocolate ice-cream, only after the vendor just made you the butter-scotch cone you asked for! Life is never like we want it to be.

I had almost left this city for another job, when I fell in love with it.
I am glad.