The set was all set. Yeah... it was just like a talk show, but was quite different; there was no host, no cameraman, no producer but just talkers, with different opinions and different footholds. Some were adamant, some were suspicious, one was curious, another defendant, and another a forward player.
One of my friends had come for a mid-week holidays to Chittor for three days. We had not been able to meet on first day of his arrival. The second evening was when we decided to go out to dine to one of the rarest kind of places found in my hometown, a restaurant. I am not kidding on this one, there is no place actually we can call as a Restaurant, and I’m not either exaggerating things. Well, there were four of us around the rectangular table: he, his friend (RJ), my wife and I.
With the various chats on our lives and all, we started to discuss on the topic, I think my wife and I will never stop discussing on. But yeah the chat-launcher was quite different. It started with the food, which had already landed on the table, soup and paneer tikka (by order it was, but by preparation it was paneer pakora). Well expected out of the soup and the starter, the chat was obvious to burp out.
The food (or rather starters) was awful, forcing my friend to condemn the whole Chittor (this is what happens practically too: if you make a small mistake, the whole of you is reviled as a wrong-doer). We started it with the food he gets in Gujarat (or rather Ahmadabad), insisting Gujjus are real fond of living life(this is also what happens practically too: if other person has a good taste in a certain thing, he/she is commended for everything you sought for). It was just for food that Gujjus had been fond of. Even I don’t deny this, but asserting Gujjus live their lives worthily was something as though reprimanding my place, my people, my community and above all me.
I hesitated on this but my friend with a strong thought reconfirmed his input, said, “You gotta agree on this that Gujjus live their life better, they don’t just save but spend also. They spend so much yet they believe in saving, they have more spending power.” I object your Honour (your Honour ...what bullshit), I objected stating spending power comes with the money. He insisted saying who said there is no money in this state. I rephrased my words saying, business opportunities are better in Gujarat, they have more resources of water, power, transportation and support from Govt, etc. A few exchange of words and I went into my own thoughts.
The real problem with my home town is not this that there is no money for people to spend, or people at my hometown are less willing to spend. But the problem is something no one actually ever thought on.
My state is well-renowned as ‘The state of hospitality’, and the hospitality starts from our people then to the people outside. We are so much attached to each other that we never realize when it starts to interfere in their world, and as a result we compel ourselves from doing things we like to do. In this place, every second (or maybe the ratio is yet less than I am stating) person know another, and every second person (no maybe here, surely the ratio is much lower than what I am stating) is also hunted from something which is socially-inacceptable. To avoid being seen by the known, they choose enjoying those (alluring) things with lower risks and hence prefer to go out for a weekend and fulfil his/her desires. This is the reason why no one has yet been able to set up a good Restaurant/Theatre/recreation place in my hometown, because people mostly go out of the town and have all these recreations there itself, when meeting his desires.
But this is not the reason I am writing a blog on the issue that I think I want people to know I have reached to the root cause of less business opportunities, more brain drain (and lesser friends of mine) in the place I am staying now. I am writing it because I am searching for an answer to overcome this issue. The issue is simple, solvable... yet I am helpless to find remedy to this problem. And, I am employing the best way to get an answer, putting it on my blog.
My friends, readers of this post, please provide your support to make my life(and many others’) a little easier. I am sure of it to move out of this place but till then I want not just to spend the life as others are spending, I want to make this place better. Whatever your thought is, your suggestion is... it would be very precious to me.
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