Still Growing Up?

I was brought up in a not so dysfunctional set up. I was almost always surrounded with people and circumstances that were, I would say, normal. Like, I did not have friends who hated their parents or wanted to run away. I wanted to be a scientist when I grew up. I was always used to power cuts, without being frustrated about them. I was used to traffic jams in Cotton Pet during peak hours. I was used to counting on people to do what they say they will do. I was used to eating Idly at a rupee each. Like I said, pretty normal.

Only recently did it dawn upon me that I now live in an almost-but-not-entirely Metro. I was exposed to people who were not from middle class only when I went to college. That itself should have been a smell. I understood that there are people who don't necessarily think Rs.10 is a big deal quiet only recently. I started getting over the fact that girls smoke only a few years ago. I never thought there will be people around me who will go to lengths to dis stupid things like infrastructure. But all these, I guess, are a part and parcel of a town transitioning into a city. However, what I was not prepared for was the fact that people from other places will start coming here.

Actually, I was and am quiet happy that people from all over India and even around the world have started coming to Bangalore. However, what I had foolishly not realized was the fact that they are here to leave - at least most of them are. A good number of people, who I call friends, are not from Bangalore. A good number of these friends are ones that I now know are here only to leave soon. Come to think of it a lot of people from Bangalore, people I know, are going abroad to study and make some money. Most of them, as far as I know them, are the type who want to come back and settle in our good ol' Bangalore. Its only fair that these friends of mine who have come here are leaving back. This is not what they call home. Its a place they are in currently which incidentally has a stupid 11.30pm curfew. I am sure all of us get home sick one or the other time after all.

I generally think I am, well, may be not completely yet but at least somewhat, grown up. But every time something like this hits me, it takes sometime to sink in that I am after all growing up. And no matter what, I may never be old enough to know it all. Or I may be.