Different places, Different cultures

Both my mom and dad have had transferable jobs. Everyone few years we would pack our bags and go to a new place. I've stayed in Chennai, Delhi, Pune and Bangalore. In between, my dad was posted in Hbad , and before I was born , my parents stayed for a while in Bombay.(these two places don't count in my case though)

When we shifted from Delhi to Bangalore, I felt really sad - to leave behind a place I liked, and more importantly ,to leave behind all my friends. I remember realizing then that I might never again see some of them, and I felt quite miserable. I adjusted pretty fast once we reached blore, found new friends to play with, and did manage to pick up Kannada. The first few days in school though I was quite miserable.

Looking back I am happy that I got to live in all these places. For one, I got exposure to different cultures, and got to meet a wide variety of people. I also managed to conclude something profoundly simple - people are pretty much the same wherever you go . They might come in all kinds of shapes and colours, but they're all pretty much the same. Some people who've stayed in the same place their whole life may probably find this hard to believe.

Secondly, I feel exposure to other cultures makes us more tolerant. While I was doing my master's, I was surprised to see people consciously seeking out other people from 'their' place, and interact only with those folks. While its fine to relate to a person because of a common culture that binds the two of you, I believe meeting other people really widens our perspective.

I feel that everyone should stay in a hostel for a while, and preferably have a roomie who's from the other corner of the country/planet . It'll pretty much have the same effect as travelling, and would be loads of fun !