Calm & Quiet

Can you imagine the first thing about India that I missed in UK? Food? I did miss the food but it wasn’t the first thing I missed immediately as I came here. I will tell you what it is.
My initial project in UK was in Havant, a remote village in UK. The village was picturesque for the first sight with old Victorian houses, cool weather and silent roads. Having read hundreds of English novels, the place was exactly how they explain in books, a calm serene place. I had always considered myself as an introvert, an imaginative soul lost in some thoughts distant from this world. On seeing the village I thought, “What better place to live than this!” No, but I was proved wrong and that too within a couple of hours.
After freshening up, I was on my way to meet my project mate. For miles together I found not a single human being. Just a few cars went by, but again no horns, no noise just calm and quiet. I started getting this feeling as though I was alone and marooned in a place with no one around. I reached the place my project mate had mentioned. It is supposed to be the high street of the town. But I found not more than 5 people (including me) on the long stretch of road. I wanted to confirm if the place I came was the right one. There was no one close whom I could ask. I walked down the road for 5 min when I met a lady. The lady said she didn’t know. I had to ask someone else. But there was no one on the road. Just deserted and silent. I had to wait for 3 minutes before I met another human being and asked him for public telephone from which I could call my colleague. I went to the booth, but needed help; had to wait again for 10 min before I met the next human being. Being a bank holiday made it further worse. I started feeling sick. That’s when I realized I miss the general people, the crowd, the general chaos and noise one finds everywhere in India.
I used to stay in a B&B and every morning I used to come to the dining area for breakfast. Almost all the tables would have been occupied when I came. But still there was no hustle-bustle of the ‘Udupi Krishna bhavans’ or the ‘Bengaluru darshinis’. There were no orders of “ Ondu masale, Eradu poori, Aidu idli sambhar’ to the cook or the menu of the supplier ‘ idli, poori, masale, uppittu,sheera….”There were no sounds from the kitchen- the water splashing, the ‘chuuuuinnnnnn’ sound of the dosa on the tawa, the sound of boiling water in the idli cooker, the cooks chatting merrily. Except or the occasional clicking of forks against the plates the place was very calm and quiet
I used to take the bus to my office. Half the busy used to be empty. Everyone silently stood in the queues, bought the tickets from the driver and came in and sat down. There was no conductor of our Mangalore city buses blowing his whistle ‘Phew…Phew….Phewwwww’ non-stop, least bothered that his whistle is within a foot’s distance from your ears. “Olage hogi, munde banni, amma aache hogi, akka illi kutkolli, alli jaaga untu…hogi hogi…” with the final “Phewwwwwwwwwww Rightttsssss poyeeee” was missing.“Tickets….tickets…yaaaru tickets….” was missing...Cries of conductors listing the bus stops “Jyothi, lady Hill, Urvastore, kottara, baikampady, panambur, Surathkal….” was not there. The bus was just calm and quiet
I came to the office. The office was filled with people generally senior to me. Everyone was busy working. There were no colleagues who came for a chat during tea breaks, there were no project managers talking aloud on the phones, there were no support teams making hue and cry of every small issue. The office was just calm and quiet.
Back again in the evening, there wasn’t this friendly shopkeeper with whom you could bargain for the prices of petty vegetables, or the little boy from whose shop you bought your daily stock of milk, curds. You just went to the supermarket and bought the things you want for a week and returned to your room. Everything was just calm and quiet
I won’t get into the terrible details of boredom, loneliness I felt during my first week. But I felt one thing, no matter how beautiful or calm and quiet the place was it had no liveliness in it. It was a dead. The quietness started to eat me from within. I had detested the crowds and gatherings in India. But I needed them. I wanted to see people, active people bustling with activity; I wanted to see them laugh, talk, scowl, blame, scold, pull, push in buses; I wanted them to be there. The place was too calm and quiet for me.
I was transferred to London within 2 weeks due to some project requirement or rather the absence of it. It was my first time in tubes, the London underground. The trains were filled with people, busy people running for offices. At every stop, some people got down, more people came in. some were talking, some were reading, some were just standing or sitting, but they were there; More people came in, tubes got crowded, there was scowl on people’s faces, there were apologetic smiles, there was announcement from driver, there was anger, to summarize in a word there was life! Life was fast and moving; there was an active rhythm to it unlike that in Havant which was sad, slow and filled with melancholy;
I felt comfortable, I felt at home. “This is where I belong”, I thought. Crowd, people, noise, hustle-bustle are a part of me. Calm, quiet, tranquil places are good only to read in books. I would not want to live in a place calm and quiet.

B&B-->Bed and Breakfast; A small motel like place to stay providing boarding and breakfast