My Home-Centric Universe

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Ever since I completed my diploma, I m wondering around... Starting from Bombay High... Kopargaon...Pune...Bangalore....Riyadh...Jeddah..... adhun madhun Virar too... and these are places where I spent at least 3 months.... I m not counting those short visits....like picnics and all...

When I put together all these traveling experiences I realize one thing, "wherever we go, our universe always remains centered around our home" May be I m generalizing my personal experiences but that is the way I see the whole thing.

Whenever we find ourselves in a new city and it is time for interaction strangers, people whom we have never seen... but need to trust them. Under such scene unless we had some specific contact information, we tend to choose the ones who are from a location geographically closer to our home.

Like, if I m in Maharashtra but outside of Mumbai, I feel inclined towards a person from Mumbai or around Mumbai but when in Mumbai we tend to form groups area wise like virar- vasai, kalyaan-dombivali parle-andheri etc..etc.. And once in that particular area when it comes to making a choice, our inclination changes towards someone closer to our home.

On the other hand if i m in central or eastern parts of Maharashtra I will look for someone at least from western maharashtra or konkan. But when I m in south India even a Gujarathi will be a lot closer.

When outside country; I tend to look for someone from the subcontinent if not from India itself. This reflects from the fact that we always tend to go into Indian restaurant. Always tend to hire a taxi with a driver with a familiar sub continental looks. If no one from subcontinent then we look for someone from Asia pacific, isn't it?

In Kopargaon there were region wise groups and they used to stick together always. When in a totally new city like Bangalore, we found all people from Mumbai forming a huddle together.

I remember once in Mhapusa, Goa how suddenly a shopkeepers attitude changed when he came to know that we came from Virar... he too was from Virar. He was suddenly talking about his old days in Virar... not to mention we got special discounts and all....

This is how we come across so called regional lobbies, when going for an interview we tend to believe if the interviewer is from same region or speaks in a familiar language tone , he will favor us. We expect this kind of support in all aspects of life knowingly or unknowingly.

Even when you talk to people who have spent a lot of years away from home, except a few people most of them tend to cherish a dream of returning and spending time in their native place. May be for this reason we have Marathi Mandals in many part of India as well as world.

What causes us behave this way? May be I need to turn towards psychology to find answers.....