My tryst with reality

Bombay was never a strange city to me. Before moving in here for work in 2010, I had visited this place several times to meet my sister.

I started living with my sister’s family in Mumbai. My peers complained of rising auto prices and jam packed locals every day and I was empathetic enough to ponder on it on my 4 min walk from home to office. While they were busy searching for brokers for rent and fighting with their room-mates over space /grocery bills and tasteless canteen food, I made important decisions ranging from what to eat for dinner : palak paneer or mattar paneer and how my new room would have pink curtains contrasting with the white walls.

The city of dreams truly lived upto its name for me .

I spent a good 2 years here and then was transferred to my hometown for an assignment where daddy’s princess had a rosy path to tread on.

Fast forward to 2014 , it was time to move to Mumbai again and this time without my sister’s presence in the city.

The moment I landed in the city with my baggage, the city looked strange to me .As I dragged my luggage towards the taxi stand I kept pondering on how uncannily daunting it would be to survive by myself this time.

On my way to my new apartment , the taxi halted at a signal . My thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the window. Though it was very hot outside , the curious and innocent eyes of the knocker compelled me to listen to what he had to say. A boy of around 8 years was demonstrating a drawing book. I said “ I don't have kids to buy this for “
He promptly replied “ You can draw , color and paint yourself. Its always fun to try new things. Who knows you could be better at this than you think”. Although impressed by his salesmanship , I did not buy the book but I couldn't keep my eyes off my newly found guru who had uttered the exact words of wisdom I needed then. My taxi moved ahead and so did I.

I was apprehensive of my new innings in the city but then I decided to give it a shot with an open and positive mind.

Its been two years of living all by myself now and id like to share some wisdom too.

Life is a journey .However small be , every journey has stories and every story has a moral. You either become wise by experiencing things or by learning from what others have experienced.

I've learnt about life in these 2 years more than my whole life put together.

Here's what id like to share with anyone who is apprehensive about doing a new thing :

• You cannot be everywhere and you cannot do everything . So prioritize what is important. The thumb rule is to value people over things.
• Always be ready with alternatives and backup plans.
• Take into account everyone’s opinion. If you think a certain opinion is unimportant then let the person know why it is so.
• Always support your statements with logic and facts. Don’t say or do anything on basis of any preconceived notion.
• Bank on action plans and ideas and not people.
• Be hungry for knowledge and have multiple perspectives and think about all possible outcomes of everything you say or do.
• And finally no work or person is inconspicuous. There is plenty to learn from each kind of work and person.