Am presently enjoying my maternity break at my in-laws place back at Jamshedpur, the steel city. Frankly loving the attention, loving being overfed ( appetite seems to be an unending saga), but just detesting the "much bigger me" and have resolved to get back to my original size at least a month after the delivery.One thing that I am enjoying the most though is the quiet peaceful town that Jamshedpur is.What a respite from the noisy, dust spurning city that Mumbai is.Living in Jamshedpur almost feels as if I have descended onto an uninhabited land, untouched by dust, pollution, crowds most importantly TRAFFIC.

Most People living in Mumbai would surely agree with me when I say the peak hour trafiic in Mumbai in a hot summer day can be equalled to a third degree torture.Ok maybe I was going too far , but definately second degree torture.Waiting on the endless Western Express highway for the antline of vehicles to budge when the suns rays burn your skin, the sweat soils your clothes and the dust and grime makes it impossible for you to convice those nosey parkers that you bathed in the morning.You enter the well lit corporate office and the snazzy rooms with clean walls looking like a drab apology to your posh surroundings(yeesh! how I hate to be in that position). Anyway, bottomline is, Mumbai gives you all the patience you need to live in conditions unsuited for basic comfortable living.The city teaches you to grow up, put up with consistant honking and pan spitting, smell of rotten garbage and sewage, in short , it teaches you to put up with a lot of shit.

Thats why coming to a small clean township like Jamshedpur, you feel as if you have descended in somesort of a luxurious resort.The peace and quiet, the clean roads , non honking and non pan spitting public, and a meagre 4 to 5 vehicles plying on roads canopied by tall green trees seems like such a luxury fit only for the king to enjoy.You hardly find dusty and chipped of concrete multistories huddled with people breathing down each others necks. I have only seen independent houses with beautiful gardening spaces .Looks like everyone here has acquired a flair for gardening. The Roads are lined with tall trees to provide shade when it gets too sunny.And at a given point in time, there are only 4 to 5 vehicles plying on the roads.Inspite of these luxuries that the jamshedpurians enjoy, my ma and pa-in-law say that the traffic is bad, and the dust is killing and pollution is at a rise.

It hit me then" my city may not have given me all the basic comforts required for a peaceful life, but what it has definately given me is the patience to take the discomfort" Since I am not exactly living in the lap of luxury, I am satisfied with even basic requirements for a comfortable living.