Culture Shock
When my predictable sheltered school life at a boarding school in Ajmer (Rajasthan) ended, I was upset. Leaving friends with whom I had shared every moment of my life for the last six years was definitely not easy, but at the same time there was a flutter of excitement. I felt the apprehension of jumping from a spring board. Will I sink or swim? was a question that remained to be answered.
Nothing could have prepared me for the fast paced life in Mumbai. Suddenly I was independent. From taking the local trains to reach college, to making new friends in the city nothing came easy. I felt lost in a college of three thousand people, being an extrovert it was not like I could not talk, I could just not relate with what everyone else was talking about. Discussions would usually revolve around drinking, smoking or late night partying. I did none of those yet, so I barely had any contribution to make. I started dreading lunch times, lectures seemed so much more easier! I missed my school friends none of who were in Mumbai, and longed to get back to the good old school days. I was sinking!!But I did not give up. This was it, I had to make it work.
Gradually things changed. Surprisingly I made my first real friend in Bombay on a local train ride. She was from my college and new to Mumbai just like me. We started travelling to college together and that was just the beginning, together we made more friends, tried new things and discovered Mumbai. College became fun, I started waiting for lectures to finish and lunch time to begin, as now the conversations were never ending with maximum contribution from my end. I finally began to swim! It was all about finding the right company, not succumbing to peer pressure and being responsible for your own decisions.
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