City of Joy.

The city of Joy has been pretty gloomy in all the time that ive been here. The day shuts down early as is the case with everything else in this city. I mean its almost pitch black by quarter to six, why dont they think of having a separate time zone or something like daylight savings time around here. Maybe its the sun which taught the people the culture or is it the vice versa i really dont know. Unlike any other big Indian city worth its name the city streets are virtually empty past 9. Salt Lake, where I am put up is considered the upmarket locality and still you'd have a tough time getting a pack of biscuits after 10.
The sluggishness is so ubiquitous that its almost eerie. Shops dont open in the afternoon till evening, and the shopkeepers take their own lazy time to respond or even acknowledge that youve been trying all sort of languish moves to catch their attention. Mondays are sacred days and hence you dont work. And bandh days are bad and then too you dont work. Subway needs a minimum order of 500 to do a home delivery and the crap restaurant which gave me food poisoning just the last week took 1.5 hours to make that lame food.
And Sector V of salt lake which houses half a lakh of professionals and students doesn't have a decent restaurant in the vicinity.
There are but two creatures which seem to muster out some amount of energy to venture out in their businesses after midnight - thieves and dogs. Salt Lake is a breeding factory of all species of mongrels that providence ever imagined, and by duties i dont mean that of safeguarding but of increasing their folds. I here need to talk about a friend of mine who took refuge inside an ATM while he was coming back a little late in the night and was confronted by one such pack.
And of thieves i can speak volumes. Ive had goods worth twenty thousand stolen in within three months in this city and Ive stopped traveling in the local buses for fear of parting with my beloved wallet.
But the city is not all bad i tell you. I love the traffic here after the clogs ive got used to in bangalore. The roads are much less dusty than Bangalore. The weather is much milder than Delhi or Chandigarh. And there havent been any power(as in electricity) problems, no loadsheddings or surges as is so common in Delhi and to a lesser extent in Bangalore. Well there is humidity but still better than Chennai.
There still remains a minimum of a year that binds me to this city, perhaps maybe id get used to the things i hate and find the things i love too good to even consider living without. Maybe as with everything else in this city even getting to love it also takes its own sweet time.