The first step: A guest post by Amateur at this

Hey! This month I have another guest on Pigeonheadophobia. Satyabati, also known as Amateur at this in the blogging world is a very dear friend of mine. We go back a long way. We were school friends, lost touch and then reconnected around two years ago. Satyabati, though a Calcuttan at heart is currently based in Hyderabad where she is doing her masters in English. She is also a talented freelance content writer. And now that introductions are done I am handing my blog over to her. 

The First Step

I had relocated to Hyderabad in pursuit of higher education (and happiness, I might add) from my hometown Kolkata in 2012. So when my friend asked me to write a guest post for her blog, I thought I’d write something about my first encounter with reality outside home.

I’m a residential student of my university, meaning I live on campus. Of course, that the move brought a tremendous change in my life cannot be enough emphasized. It has been more than a year and a half since I first came to Hyderabad, yet at times I am still left grappling with the challenges of living alone.

Loneliness. This was the first emotion I could identify amongst the squiggling bundle of nerves that I had become in my initial days. I had never lived a day on my own in my entire 21 year old life. I wasn’t exactly nervous, but there was a constant jittery feeling in my head.

Certain things took time to get used to, like the fact that I have to go eat my meals on my own responsibility. If I went hungry, nobody would give a rat’s gut about it. Then came the usual washing, cleaning, and the occasional cooking.

In my undergraduate days, all my friends spoke the same language. And I mean that very literally. But in my university, I suddenly met numerous fellow students from various linguistic backgrounds. I feel that if I had not come here, in this multi-lingual environment, I would never have fully appreciated how important English is, to me and as a common communicative language.

Kolkata is the city that saw nearly all of my firsts. But Hyderabad has in a way become my rite to passage into adulthood. I went to my first nightclub here. I had never been able to cook anything before, so Hyderabad has had the pleasure of my first khichdi; my first chocolate-bomb on Diwali, my first DJ-Night, my first binge drinking and passing out, my first haggle with the sabzi-wala, my first getting lost in the city without a dime in my pocket...

Hyderabad isn’t home. I don’t think it’ll ever be. But yes, it is special. It is special how it rains here. It is special to look at the entire city awakening as the sun goes down from the top of Maula-Ali. It is special because, even with all the difference in language, food and culture, it gave a scared girl in self denial hope, that it will be alright. All you need to do is take the first step.