Two Homes?

Gazing back to the past, when I see my naive 17 year self staring at the tiny little airport of Pune for the first time with wide eyes and an anxious heart, I cannot help the small smile that naturally comes to my lips and eyes. I could not call upon this smile so easily when I first came to this city, it was indeed, forced. Forced to hide my fears, forced to stick up for my decision in front of my parents, forced to fool myself with some fake adrenaline rush like ones in the movies. But the bitter truth was that I did not find the city as warm and welcoming at first glance as it was in my daydreams.

Now, having successfully completed nearly a year in this Maharashtrian city, I will admit that the smile is no longer forced and my laughs are for real. With the end of our academic year, I think this city has accepted and changed everyone of us bit by bit. Whether you were that shy kid who found it hard to socialise during the induction, or you were that bubbly person whose only aim was to know as many batchmates as possible, whether you were looking forward to being a nerd or a party animal, it did not matter. This tolerant city accepted us all and made us grow up a little, out of our high school bubbles.
I believe we are all a little more confident, a little more knowledgeable about different cultures and people (courtesy to our college), and in the end, a little more understanding of the world out there. The initial doubts, the craving of the taste of homemade food on our tongues, and all the adaptability issues were really worth it.

Now that most of us are back home for a break, somewhere deep down, we look forward to visiting our second home again- our city of freedom, our city of fun, our city of choice. Pune is a place we all chose instead of our hometowns and that makes it a place which feels like it is only ours, where no one interferes and we are our own bosses.

I just want to convey that it was indeed a very brave step for all of us to move out and explore the unexplored. Some of us have already fallen in love with this town, some of us are on the way, some of us are sad to leave it behind, but I think in the end we are all grateful — grateful to this town to help us know our souls a little bit better than we did before.

“Be patient. It won’t happen overnight. Just hang in there and have faith that it will work out”- Anonymous

Writer: Nidhi Dave
Editor: Raghav Grover