365 Days: Oh that's a Year

Date: 18th January 2013

Time: 12 noon

Raining

The train came to a halt. Though a year has already passed, everything that happened right there was still fresh on his mine. It was January, it wasn't suppose to rain, he thought. Growing up from a land with a rich cultural history and traditions, and superstitions; he had heard a saying which goes that when it rained unexpectedly in a place someone had just arrived, it is a welcome sign that the sky had acknowledged his presence. It's not that he believe in myths but he knew it was a sign, good or bad.

His whole life, he was confined more to the countryside and not a city. The sight that lies before him, it made him overwhelmed with amazement. This wasn't the sight he had expected, what was he expecting then? Indeed he hasn't thought about anything. A week ago, he was in his native village wondering what to do with his life.

His whole life, people keeps telling him that he has to become a doctor. After the completion of his twelfth examination, he was admitted to a medical coaching institute in a nearby city. Though he was not so sure if being a doctor was what he wanted, but the pressure that his parents and relatives gave him, he was driven to it. To the world of his parents and relatives, a medical doctor was the perfect profession, in the line with engineers and IAS officers. Every parents in his community has dreams of their sons and daughters becoming anyone of these three. To them, all other professions are secondary and are professed by weaker people who does not want happiness in their life. 

The good marks he scored and the countless pressures that poured in, he had no choice but to take the path created by his parents and relatives. Three months passed,  he knew deep in his heart that he was heading the wrong way and he start to realize how he would eventually regret taking this path sooner or later. A doctor was not what he wanted with his life to be. Though he might become rich and healthy, with the perfect job and the "Dr" tag in his name, like his parents has always dreamed, he knew he was never going to attained this, he knew he would end up hating himself waking up each morning for the rest of his life.

Finally, he decided to stop this before he come to a place where there was no turning back. When this news broke out, the response was overwhelming. With a population of over 7000 in more than 400 houses, a hospital and a PHC, the village still lacks a doctor, among many others.  When a certain boy who made news few months back that he is trying to pursue the medical profession; and then after 4 months, overturn it; it made headlines.

The confusions created by people around him and the never-ending talks from relatives, it was psychologically disturbing to him. Everyone in the community has hope that he would become the first ever doctor from his community. Although attaining this title won't be so bad, he wanted to escape from this nerve-wrecking confusions and chaos. He has a brother who lives in Delhi, maybe he could help. Maybe he could help him escape. Sigh.

And there he stands on the platform in an unknown foreign land, with a bag next to him. This was a dream, this cannot happened. Everything looked strange to him, he hasn't see anything like this before.  Along with three other travelers, they stepped out of the station. Once outside, the environment was a total change. He could feel the cold winter wind on his face. The rain which hasn't stopped yet had flooded the whole area outside the station. He could hear the buzz of vehicles all around, cars honking at him from every directions, and yet he was excited. They called a taxi and then putting the baggage on the trunk of the vehicle, he took the window seat so that he could enjoy the view of the enchanted city as they headed to their destination. Like most taxis in the city, they hired an air-conditioned for a exciting and comfortable ride. It was a total change from what he sees back home. He was in another world. He feel himself like an officer travelling in the best car to attend the biggest event in the universe.

Being a new arrival, he could not  figure out which direction he was taken to. He saw buildings, tall buildings, perfect lane, greenery, parks, everything was paradise. About an hour later, they were taken to a smaller lane, and then to a neighborhood, till the taxi stop at a corner of a building. He thought this must be the place. Close enough, they told him they have reached. They took their bags and then enter into a building and then to a long hallway, and then the stairs that seems to almost touched heaven. At length, they knocked on a door, and someone opened and smiled, welcoming them to the room. He wasn't still so sure if this was all but a dream, this was too great to be real, too real to be a dream. It was not a dream, it was reality. He was in Delhi. He is in Delhi. That's my story.

This day last year, the 18th of January, I stepped on Delhi's soil and breath Delhi's air. Exactly a year ago today, I took to journey to where I am today. I still have a couple of years to stay in this great city I fall in love with. I don't know how things will pan out in the end, for now let us live with it.