“It’s as exciting as getting a get out of ‘jail free card’!” chortles newbie engineering graduate Feba Faisal, brandishing her offer letter from a Bangalore-based IT firm. Now that college’s over, many of the city’s young graduates are all set to leave the comforts of their homes for the metros, to take up their first jobs. The youngsters have much to look forward to (and ponder about), going by the experiences of their peers from the city who are already earning for themselves and living on their own. Life, as they find out, is not a game of Monopoly with ‘jail free cards’ and free money.
Amita Peter, who moved to Mumbai about a year ago to take up a job as a management consultant, says: “The best thing about earning for yourself and living independently is that it gives you the freedom to do what you want to do, to go where you want to go, without being answerable to anyone but yourself. You don’t need to be on time for anyone but yourself and you certainly don’t have to show up for social commitments if you don’t want to. Most importantly, though, it gives you your own space. I am also a keen photographer, wherever I feel the urge to click photos, now I can just up and go – no questions asked, even if it’s in the middle of the night!”
However, Amita would be one of the first to admit that the freedom comes with a few caveats attached. “Due to work commitments, I spend weekdays in Ahmedabad and weekends in Mumbai. Because of that, my free time is more about catching up on household chores such as cleaning, cooking and doing laundry than sleeping and socialising!” she says, with a laugh. Meenakshi Ramnath, who moved to Bangalore after graduation and has been working as a management executive for the past year, is in full agreement. “Initially, the move was very difficult, going from home where everything is taken care of to practically running your own house – making sure bills are paid, dealing with housemaids, cooking... I’m still figuring out how to manage home and work life. Another challenge was adjusting to life in the fast lane and dealing with people from different backgrounds.”
Techie Shruthi Ramesh too says that it took her some time to “mentally shift gears from her cosseted small town sensibilities” to fend for herself in Hyderabad. “I am an only child and my parents pamper me a lot. When I first came to Hyderabad six months ago, I was so miserable that I used to call my mother some seven times a day and cry my heart out! Living the high life put a few truths into perspective fairly quickly: it gave me a newfound respect for money; the fact that no food is as good as mom’s food and that there is no place like home, not even the best of paying guest accommodation!”
In fact, for several of the youngsters, finding decent accommodation, especially, was a huge hurdle. Most of them speak of being fleeced by brokers, having to shell out exorbitant sums for rent and even having to dealing with “psychotic” roommates. Abijith, who has been working as an operations analyst with an airline IT solutions provider in Bangalore for the past couple of years, explains: “Say you start off with a salary of 25k. Generally, people tend to live near their offices in order to prevent long commutes. As such, to get a decent 1 BHK in a place like Koramangala, for example, where many of IT firms have offices, you would have to pay rent of around 15k per month. Of course, the more roommates you get, the less is the cost, but remember, equally less is the space you have for yourself. In most such cases, landlords charge 10 months rent in lieu of deposit upfront.” Techie Ozman Azad, who has been working in Pune for the past year and a half chips in: “If you don’t know Hindi or Marathi in Pune, rest assured, brokers and landlords will take you for a ride. As it is, the further north you go, the less it feels like home.”
Actually, Ozman is one of the few lucky ones. He shares an apartment with five of his buddies, Johnson , Libu, Rony , Alexander and Dipak, all of whom have been friends since school and all of whom work in the same MNC.
Not everyone has such a readymade support system when the move to a city. Quips Amita: “Before I moved to Mumbai, I knew precisely two people in the city. Once there though, I started socialising extensively, signing up for just about every gathering I came across –I even went for a meeting of a sailing club (laughs)! And so, gradually, I built up a network of friends.” The search for the familiar, also often leads the youngsters to other Malayalis.
“A nice thing about big cities is that you’ll find Malayalis and, more importantly, Malayali food, wherever you go. In my team at work, for example, of the 33 employees, 18 are Malayalis, of which seven are from Thiruvananthapuram, including my boss, who incidentally, studied in Christ Nagar, my alma mater!” says Abijith.
So, it’s only a question of making yourself at home in the city of your choice, they chorus. They insist that they have found their city of joy.
