One year in a new city!

No, it is not the exact same day I landed in Bangalore last year. It is just roughly an year since I decided to leave the love-of-my-life-town - Hyderabad and move into a new city in search of greener pastures. (Bangalore definitely is greener. But is also damper and dirtier, so that sort of makes up for Hyderabad being a better place anyway). Also, one year down, this new place still feels new.

As it is, I don't clearly understand if I have miserably failed at adapting to a new environment. Nevertheless, I surely have survived.

Moving to a new place, can be extremely exhausting and tiring. What I hated about the change was the fact that I completely lost my freedom. While yes, staying home with a mother ready to get you married to the next eligible NRI in sight might sound like a little bit of a no-freedom life, but that was still OK. Here, my everyday life lost its freedom - I have no bike to run around, no cats to play with, no house to dirty and no kitchen to cook. I have some limited space in a small room (that I still can't manage to identify as 'home'), with one cot and a really small cupboard. (Thanks to my mother again. The universe seems too small a place to accommodate the clothes she wishes I wear regularly).

But this, did not come without a brighter side.

I love my work. Agreed, I had difficulties adjusting with a completely new environment, completely new mentalities and a completely new department of work all at once... but now, I have settled in. This might exactly be why I call myself a survivor despite not having a very entertained time in this new city. I have come to terms with my health - in the sense that - I managed to leave behind a major period of illness, weakness and fear and entered a phase of not-so-much cough and cold.

I have made friends at work, and have met some truly amazing people. People I want to be more like and people I want to be able to work like. I guess, that's the best thing that happened to me in the last one year. I connected back with some old friends and that was delightful.

Further, I discovered that I indeed am good at this new field I chose to explore. And, while being good is not a permanent thing, I learnt that neither is being bad. So, I have successfully identified my strengths and I managed to find some people who would help me fix my weaknesses over time.

Overall, while I really cannot claim that this was the best way this year could have been... I am pretty sure it has been a lovely one year. Having learned and unlearned a lot of my life's important lessons, today, I am happy that I took this decision to move out.

Well, like everything neither is this feeling permanent. And I will think about that some other day.
As of now, I am happy I didn't get forced into a child marriage this year, and hope my mother understands what I mean.

~ Priyanka