I was born in Delhi and I stayed in the National Capital Region (around Delhi) until I was 30. Then at 30, I decided to move to Kanpur for a job opportunity which offered me a little hike but a grand opportunity to have ample free time due to a number of holidays. I joined a college as a Trainer.
When one moves to a new city, one isn’t able to differentiate between one’s own city and the new place one has shifted to. The struggle is to find a dwelling, an eating outlet, a basic market and of course a few friends. One gets to meet new people, feels helpless at times, gathers courage, pushes the limits and starts staying at a place.
The same happened with me and I was able to adjust to the life in Kanpur. After being nudged by my wife for 2 months, to call them to Kanpur, I even brought my family to this place and made the roots stronger. It was tough to raise a child without his grandparents alongside but I and my wife thought we will be able to manage and survive. The situations at work were fine and life was, if not a cakewalk, not pathetic.
Then one day, the situations at work got troublesome. The senior management took me to task for an error and I was made to look like a culprit. Gradually, I realized, I was being taken to task for every little error I did with zero tolerance for an error and it became burdensome to handle. With an elaborate experience in the Training Industry, I thought I should move out and look for an alternative. The day the management decides to chuck me out, I would move away to make that alternative my full-time employment.
I decided to move to the training companies, the institutes and all the brands I had heard of in the city. I was astonished the way I was received. These places had no vacancies and the clientele was missing. There was no one to buy those courses, the salaries were like that of a beginner and the colleges in the area either didn’t pay well or had troubles paying salaries. Where was I? I hadn’t seen a place like this before. When in Delhi, I was proud to have left a company in the morning and joined another by afternoon. The industry knew me, the organizations had a huge clientele and I didn’t know what working with one organization, under undue pressure, felt like.
I was trapped in Kanpur and while thinking, differentiated between NCR and Kanpur this way:
- Roads: To start with, my car seems to have broken its bones and by that, I, of course, mean the shockers. The roads are broken, the Red Lights have recently been installed and people drive from all the directions without realizing if one should be driving that way. The traffic jams aren’t as bad as I have seen in Delhi while Delhi was developing but the broken roads make you feel that you aren’t in an urban area.
- Language: With national language being Hindi, people in Kanpur, most of the times use a certain “Kanpur slang” which is mainly the language of the “Dehat” or the rural area around. Most of the people struggle with English with hardly any will to learn the language. The advantage of being from Delhi is that they appreciate my accent and fluency.
- Outings: Outings here are limited to 2 malls, “Z Square” and “RaveMoti,” with a few shopping complexes and a few markets, such as the one in Gumti. With Mc Donalds, Pizza Hut and Dominoes at every 2 Kms in the capital and my own house in NCR being surrounded by 8 malls having all the brands that one would want to buy from, Delhi offers thousands, if not millions, of places to visit.
- Libraries: The access to the British Council library in Delhi made my life easy and secure. Secure, because I knew that I would always have a place to read in my free time. Also, it would help my child grow in a similar way as I grew, surrounded by books, having all those reader kids around and of course the Connaught Place market (close to the British Council) to explore. Other than the British Council, Delhi has the famous Delhi Public Library that gives one an opportunity to read thousands of books kept there.
- Jobs: Kanpur, a city of Small business houses, either needs labor (who still ride bicycles) or officials that can work at lower pay and can handle almost everything. One cannot find many opportunities in Kanpur if one ever plans to stay here throughout. However, if one is ready to be exploited by one employer, one can stay in Kanpur in that one company and feel settled. Delhi is a hub of opportunities. All businesses emerge in Delhi and NCR and then spread to other cities. With, Gurgaon, Noida, Okhla, Mohan cooperative estate, etc, being Industrial areas, Delhi is never short of jobs.
- Colleges: Kanpur has one famous PSIT college which provides the best of courses and the state of the art infrastructure. There are no famous colleges other than PSIT, IIT Kanpur and HBTI that one can opt for. On the other hand, Delhi has a huge Delhi University, with 90 famous colleges operating under the direct supervision of the University. Also, Delhi University, most of the times, is the only university that the educational institutes the world over know India from. JN University again has an imprint on the world and if not these two, there are hundreds of colleges affiliated to the IP university that offer everyone some course or the other. There are hundreds of other colleges and Universities in NCR and the list goes on and on.
- Fairs: Delhi offers a huge International Trade Fair that attracts people from the world over. Those few days of the fair give every Delhite an opportunity to ask another if he has visited the Trade Fair. Delhi has a world book fair where one gets to buy and read all the national and international authors and publishers and a day isn’t enough to explore the whole place.
- Public Transport: Kanpur hasn’t experienced those Low floor AC and Non-AC buses to travel within the city. In fact, there are no buses to travel within the city. The city relies on “Vikrams,” those shared three wheeler alternatives to buses where one can squeeze oneself between two other people sitting on a small seat or hang oneself on the front seat, with the driver. Kanpur is yet to see a metro running which isn’t coming in the next 10 years at least. To stay away from those “Vikrams” means to spend a fortune on Cabs and private autos.
- Masala: Kanpur is a land of people chewing Pan Masala and spitting it all over. I remember, when I planned to move to Kanpur and told it to one of my colleagues, he laughed enacting how people eat Masala in Kanpur. The best places in Kanpur are painted red by spitting Pan Masala. Unlike Delhi, Pan Masala isn’t limited to the labor class and even the senior most people in the hierarchy in an organization would be seen welcoming each other with Pan Masala.
- Policing and Safety: Your safety in Kanpur is dependant on how many politicians and higher officials you know. The police seem to be stopping the truck drivers and fetching money.
- Vacations: It’s easy to move to Shimla or anywhere in Himachal from Delhi than from Kanpur. If one starts from Kanpur, one has to travel 500 Km extra to reach Delhi first and then go to any of these places in Himachal, Punjab or even for a small trip to Chandigarh. Kanpur offers easy trips to places like Orcha and Khajuraho, but these aren’t hot travel destinations like the places in Himachal and Punjab.
With no grudges against the city and being thankful that I separated myself from Delhi for the first time and landed in Kanpur and made wonderful friends, I believe that it would always stay in my heart even if I don’t stay in Kanpur. However, for a strong career and better prospects ahead every student moves out of Kanpur one day or the other.