Image Credit; https://pixabay.com/photos/japan-kanazawa-shirakawa-go-3205106/
Man has reached the moon, scanned the space and crossed endless oceans. Technology is run helter skelter and so are we humans running painstakingly to invent something new each day. Life moves on in midst of all these in the world, in small towns as well as big cities. While big cities are starting to get more crowded and popular each day, small towns some get known and some just dwindle away from lack of knowledge about their existence.
People move to bigger cities to make it big but their roots are still attached to the small town they belong to. In fact some make it real big, move abroad and travel the world but surprisingly enough their hearts still are of a small town person.
I am from a small town and now when abroad always remark “I believe I am not away from home, instead bringing a little India outside India through me”. On a lighter note, there are some funny (and nostalgic) signs to show that wherever the person reaches in life, if he is from a small town he is oblivious to some particular feelings that no one else can comprehend.
1. You haggle and bargain ferociously just for some money.
Only the people from small towns know this feeling of contentment when they get something cheaper than what they thought for. The day gets simpler when you managed to save some money on the local grocery, clothes or just some negotiation with the taxi driver.
Of course not ruling out the city people totally on this one, but the achievement that you feel when you save some money show that you truly are a small town person.
2. You hoard up food in your plate at weddings.
Weddings mean one thing for small town people .Hoarding up more and more food than their plates can possibly hold. Also they don’t like to miss to taste even one of the delicacies ranging from pastas to ice creams, even when their stomachs are way beyond full.
3. You prefer flea markets to showroom.
If you like showrooms but love the tiny flea markets, you most likely belong to a small town. The ones who love the get the same cheaper version in the streets, the ones who prefer junk jewellery than expensive stones, the ones who keep on saying “It’s Ok to buy these, I am anyways going to wear them just once or twice!” The ones who are not brand fanatics, they are low-cost-OK quality ones.
4. You always like to know what is happening in the neighbor’s house
Nosy ones would be nosy by nature from wherever they belong. Still if you are from a small town you are so used to overhearing the gossip or fights from your neighbor’s so you get automatically “alert” by nature. Your inner “tubelight” is always on even when you go out of your homes and are interested in other’s affairs.
5. You prefer the “Home-remedies” treatment more than the chemist medicines.
The small town ones are the ones mostly to have a knack of “home remedies” or natural ways with the herbs when they get sick. If you have a friend who goes the natural way, loves the herbal ointments and prefers brewing something in the kitchen rather than popping a tablet, most likely he would be a small town chap.
6. You are on top of the world when someone says they know your town
Since people are reaching everywhere, even the remote mention of your town in a movie, news or the TV makes you sit upright. Watching TV and a person from your town winning a singing competition, you tell the whole world about this lovely mention even when they are not related to you.
Remember going abroad or maybe even to big cities and somebody asking you about your town and you mutter under your breath feeling that they won’t know? And they know it after all. The feeling is delightful and you feel the world is your oyster that day.
7. You know the excitement of visiting the city every now and then.
Going to the city especially when you are from a small town was something to look forward to. Gaping at the huge showrooms, elite people walking on the streets to the endlessly tall buildings was wonderful.
Usually used to the quiet and not so bustling life, if you were in awe of going to the city for shopping or just to visit an old aunt, these are signs to prove your small town roots.
8. You often miss climbing on trees and playing catch.
Whenever you pass by big parks or orchards now in your city, you often recollect the feeling of climbing on trees, picking fresh fruit and sometimes raw ones just to have fun. You never knew the feeling of playing the X-box or taking piano lessons back then but You knew the feeling of blowing the whistle and riding the tyres with a stick on your broken down roads.
9. You often miss the vegetable patch at home.
Often heard someone cribbing about the chemicals in today’s vegetables and how fresh were the ones that you had back home? Chances are they belong to a small town. Only they know the feeling of growing up near a farm, having vegetable patch and picking fresh ones and handing it to Mom to cook.
10. You miss shouting the name of your friend who lives next door.
You are from a small town if you shout and call your friends crossing the street or living across. Being accustomed to living in homes that hardly had a boundary you call out your friends to play in the sunny afternoons just by shouting their names. And now you are maybe in a big city when even the person who is in the same room doesn’t hear your voice when you call out.
11. You Miss the super feeling of the entire town knowing you.
Only small town folks know the feeling of the being The person when they walk across the town. Even when they return home after a long time you are taken aback by how much the local newspaper boy or the restaurant owner knows about your whereabouts and dwellings now.
12. You know the feeling of having your “account” at local grocery shops.
Small town folks know the feeling of having an account at their grocery shops or just getting some freebies or candies just because the owner knows you. It’s lovely to have a chat with the grocery wale “bhaiaya” while the assistant packs your grocery in a bag.
13. You love the city life but miss the fields, wells and small streams near your home.
You are from a small town when you visualize the fields back home, cows mooing and ox ploughing when you spy a green park. You are from a small town when you visualize the well back home when you fill water from the huge water tank. You visualize the small streams near your house when you take a dip now in your bath tubs.
14. You know the feeling of the taps going dry and running to the ponds to take a splash.
No water at home. No issues? We do have the local stream or the pond. The one stream or pond which was the source of everything in the small town. It was the source of entertainment and place to run to when taps go dry. We didn’t learn swimming in high fancy blue pools instead in brown, still crowded ponds when jostled by friends.
15. You say “Nothing has changed, everything is still the same” when you go back.
The inevitable sign that you are from a small town is you saying this “Still everything is the same as I came the last time”. You remark how much has changed in your big city or outside the country where you are coming from and how things are the same here. Same broken down road, same mud houses, same small shops, same cows on the streets and same small schools.
When everything still remains the same, there are signs good and bad. Bad of course as you want your town to grow up and meet the world. But good as it is the same town that made you expand your horizons, the same town that helped you retain your innocence, the same one that is the reason behind your humility and helped to you to be at par with the others. And the ones that is continuing to nurture people like you who are going places.
You may travel miles in your life but there are some small town traits in you that you carry across with you always.
