A New City: Another Beginning

Ever wondered why moving into a new city is such an exhilarating experience. 

I think relocating to a new city is like falling in love for the first time, the anxiety that makes one go weak in their knees, the group of butterflies constantly swirling around our gut to make sure that the thought of settling down in an unfamiliar territory never leaves us. The subconscious awareness to make sure everything goes perfect and the anticipation of nothing but love and acceptance in return is visible in our behavior. It’s more like an one sided relationship initially that we have with the city, and with time we explore its nature from a deeper sense of understanding, be it tasting the first cup of tea in the morning, the fashion in which the group of birds chirp, the most crowded park where people prefers to have their morning walk, the peak office hours of the city, the coldness of the evenings, the silence of the nights. It is like starting a new phase in our lives when we move to a new city, leaving behind us our past memories, on our way to a fresh start.

Photo by Florian Wehde on Unsplash

I might be over romanticizing the nature of the issue, but let us just assume a new city like a lover, a constant companion who would accept us with our flaws and make us discover things about ourselves. A lover who will not judge our actions, rather make us aware about them. A lover with whom we can explore many things and the whole experience stays between the two of us. The fundamental aspect in this relationship is the respect you give in return to all the love you receive. The mutually exchange of two emotions is what builds this relationship and makes it stronger with time. I recall a dialogue from Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool, where Jahangir Khan (Abbaji) very romantically tells a man that Mumbai is his beloved, and he constantly wants to be around her. Another interesting characteristic that can be included in this smearing of romance is how the city helps us adapt to the environment, the adjustment we make to be culturally suited in the town, the more attentive we become on the kind of tone we speak in, the way we address and greet people around us. It is as if a situation where the place charms us to fall passionately and made in love with the small bundles of happiness in life. I just cannot help but think this scenario as a lover trying to get the other one out of their comfort zone and helping out in familiarizing with the localities.

What makes this experience of shuffling into a new city so special? I constantly ask myself. It could very easily turn out to be a totally polar opposite to my idealistically layered scenario I just wrote to give myself a sense of confidence, and let the anxiety be less traumatizing. It could turn into bizarre circumstances where one is simply confused and have no one to go and ask for help, because at the end of the day, it is still an unfamiliar territory. The strange set of faces from the large crowd looking at us, probably acknowledging the fact that another face is about to enter the jungle and is in desperate search of survival.

Perhaps, the internal freedom we acquire over a period in a new city is what makes this process so unforgettable. A sense of freedom that triggers us to do things that we ourselves are not certain to do. The sort of freedom that brings out the best and worst in us, the feeling of amalgamating in to the surroundings, and doing things in accordance to our likings. Along the freedom, comes several other emotions that too in a philosophical template, we get to know the actual behavior and importance of time. There is a period where flashbacks occurs out of the blue and we are forced to ponder over them, but then shifting gears and coming out of those flashbacks is pertinent because of the preferences we have in our in our hands courtesy the new city. Picking up your stuff and moving into a new city is a bold and brave move, travelling hundreds of miles of distances which separates us from our loved ones and settling down into a city to build our life in our own terms. We should definitely be proud of that fact, but the self-appreciating facet does not have a great shelf life, and once that is over, we come to terms with the actual reality and waves of thoughts that constantly run in our minds is about how well we have been able to adapt to the city or how well we have been able to depart our thoughts and minds from home. The departure from the hometown is an emotionally exhausting process, you just do not want to bid goodbye to those lanes, streets, roads, people (optional) and get out of that place. There is a slight bit of acknowledgement about our existence in our hometown, regardless from any judgmental opinions by anyone. That tiny bit of acknowledgment of our existence does not hold any value whatsoever once we move out, and once equilibrium between these moving out and moving in thoughts is perfectly balanced, I guess we are good to go.

In Imtiaz Ali’s Tamasha, Ved goes to Corsica, and dramatically changes into “Don”, along with Tara. The city is seducing Ved to come out of his shell, and be an instinctive person while living his life. In that case, Ved does not move into Corsica, he is on a holiday alone in the beautiful town to get rid of his mundane life. Imagine what if Ved had permanently shifted to Corsica, would Tara ever identify with the dual nature personality that resided in Ved’s Mind. He probably would have been under the role of Don for a longer period, without actually making anyone realize what he is under the mask of Don.       

I wish, I had 1/10^th of the wonderful writing skills that Aisha Banerjee from Wake up Sid had while describing her emotional journey of living in a new town in her article, I would have made actual sense in what I am trying to convey here about my thoughts. Perhaps it is too early to proclaim my love to this new city and I think it is better for the time being to let both of us remain in that zone of hesitation before one of us embrace the other wholeheartedly.