About my hometown #123

I was born and brought up in a small town. Let’s call it N.A.V.* for this story. It’s a few kilometres away from Kolkata. I have always heard to call it as a city, not as a small town until I got admission into college and I moved to Kolkata. It was the first I got exposer to people from Kolkata and other parts West Bengal. Many of those hadn’t been to N.A.V. in their life, neither had they heard about it. I don’t know if it’s their ignorance or just an attempt to make me feel inferior, some of the students used to say that N.A.V. was a village. I used to disagree with them and prove it with facts. But I found them happy in believing a completely wrong thing.

Here’s a few things about my hometown that are different in my hometown than Kolkata and Hyderabad.

Always in festive mode. You will hardly find a time when a puja or festival is not around the corner. There are always some mics playing songs, commercials and political speeches. My home is nearby a market. We need to cross the market to anywhere. It’s crowded and noisy. People are selling and buying and eating and gossiping and what not! You don’t wait there to let people pass first, you just squeeze through them. 😂
The extended family. What I felt in Kolkata and also in Hyderabad, people don’t really interact with other with that much of affection. People in N.A.V. are simple and loving. I’m not saying that people outside my hometown are bad, I just never feel the warmth in their gesture.
Restaurants. My parents never supported us eating outside foods be it junk foods or lunch in a fancy restaurant. Until my college started I never knew about food delivery apps or fancy restaurants. Currently I’m living on restautant food. When I go home in holidays, I find that there’s hardly any good restaurant there. I don’t see any food delivery service working there. It’s not major problem for the people as most of them are living with their own family and they are habituated with cooking daily.
For a very long time there was no shopping mall in N.A.V. even though many famous brands had found a potential market there and had their shops.
App based cab services. It’s yet to be always available there.
Hawkers call. I’m feeling nostalgic right now. Sometimes when I talk to my parents I hear shouts of hawkers selling or buying stuffs. In morning, people used to sell fresh vegetables and fishes. Those who used to sell pickle, household staffs, accessories etc used to come in afternoon. In evening there were hawkers selling ice creams or savoury snacks. It was hell of a noise but we got used to it.
Everything is so cheap. Living in metro city is so expensive. Whenever I visit hometown, I find every thing cheaper. People mostly travel by train ans bus because they are easily available and cheapest option for transport.