And these are the things that i miss about being in a small town:
1 If someone eveteases you, all you have to do is shout and blows will rain upon him, while you are escorted home as "dear daughter"
2 If you are traveling alone with a child, no one will think twice before taking all your luggage and escorting you to a car and ensuring that you are comfortable before moving on.
3. Everyone knows everyone and if your child misbehaves, you can rest assured that you will hear of it before the evening is done.
4. No one can do something morally wrong (like cheating on a spouse, troubling the DIL, abusing a child or a step child et al) and hope to get away with "none of your business" to the neighbors, or to those who know.
5. If you are elderly, you will be given a place to sit, and if you are a child, you will be protected, even escorted home, if you are a woman, you will be taken care of. Someone will carry your luggage for you. If you are a pregnant woman, Mother Earth and its 7 sisters will bend over backwards for you.
6. Basically, i miss the genuine warmth, the social vigil (that was in some ways stangulating) and the sharing of delicacies when made in one house.
7. If you came home and your mother was not at home, you just rang the neighbor's bell and sat there and ate and were monitored until mater returns. if mater had to go somewhere, all she had to do was to inform the neighbor and a play date was arranged. No one needed to "ask" if you will babysit and no one needed a 24 hour maid. The kids got exposed to various kinds of houses, and stuck together through it all.
8 comments:
roots and wings.....
this is my favorite of your posts of all time. i LOVED getting to know you in this way.
i live in a small town now, my first. there is a civility and a simplicity to it that is trustworthy.
to be alone in a crowd is the worse, i think. thanks for the reminder of what's really important. the trick is to hold on to it, eh?
♥
kj
sanjha choola baleya
yes indeed. I see my mausi's family living in a small town and so much miss the warmth there.
Went to school in a small town. I liked the quiet slow pace.
Aww,, I understand that. I love it when in small towns you have the extremely warm people..if you ask them the way to some place..they'll literally take you to the place and keep you safe!
<3
Nice blog..
hi kj: :-) Yes, well, i miss the old times too. This weekend, i went to a small town for a weekend getaway and people were so nice it brought tears to my eyes and reminded me of the childhood long gone.. and much missed.
Hi Varun : :-)
Hi Peenuts: Yep! Totally what i mean.
Hi Phos: me too. i dont know what the race is about. Really.
Hi Sachi: Thank you for the kind words. I assume this is ur first time here.. welcome!
You seem to be talking of a different era altogether. I can relate to most of the things you mentioned. I hail from a small town and things have changed ever since I was a kid.
The neighbourhoods are not same and neither are the people. People sold off the lands in villages and everyone is richer now. There is congestion, modern behenjis and half bred 'englisss' speaking 'dooods' flanking the streets. The simplicity of life is lost to the media invasion and commercialization of everything - even friendly neighbourhood babysitting.....
ah.. I could go on and on..but then it was good to remember the days gone by through your post. Good one..again.
Hi Himanshu: You know, coincidentally, what led to this post was some of this stuff that happened on the Amritsar trip. Someone took my luggage and came to the car with me. The coolie didnt leave until i was safely inside the taxi. The taxi person made sure i reached the hotel safe and saw into my room before leaving. :-) Yes, the other things.. they have probably changed a lot. I dont see spontaneous playdates happening in my home town any more.
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