I live in small town India since Covid and WFH, and I spent my childhood here.
The thing is, with this much tightknit society, people are often loudly judgemental and requires you to conform.
But, there are always sensible, gentle people, and loud stupid people. You can modulate your expectations.
But what happened is- all the "good ones" leave sooner or later. There is much hue and cry about brain drain from India to US/Europe, but little about brain drain from small towns and villages to big cities.
I left for college, too.
There were many more cultural programmes, much better environment for upliftment and somewhat more sensible society when I was a child compared to now.
I engage in community as much as I can, but very selectively. Because most people want things to fall in a certain place. People are ill informed in technology, and don't really get WFH. Some bluntly ask- why I don't have a "real job"? People want girls to get married at a certain age, and squint if that limit is crossed.
I live in small town India since Covid and WFH, and I spent my childhood here.
The thing is, with this much tightknit society, people are often loudly judgemental and requires you to conform.
But, there are always sensible, gentle people, and loud stupid people. You can modulate your expectations.
But what happened is- all the "good ones" leave sooner or later. There is much hue and cry about brain drain from India to US/Europe, but little about brain drain from small towns and villages to big cities.
I left for college, too.
There were many more cultural programmes, much better environment for upliftment and somewhat more sensible society when I was a child compared to now.
I engage in community as much as I can, but very selectively. Because most people want things to fall in a certain place. People are ill informed in technology, and don't really get WFH. Some bluntly ask- why I don't have a "real job"? People want girls to get married at a certain age, and squint if that limit is crossed.
Community also come with this kind of burdens.