Cha

Change - Beautiful word. It can be used for any kind of situation (just like Osho’s use for the F word). Why I had to leave Bombay and come to Hyderabad, why I have to shift to a newer apartment every 4-5 months or why every country needs a new leader time and again – Change! I came to hate the word a lot, because it became clichéd. You never notice the changes when you’re young, and once you’re past that youth threshold, you never want some things to change drastically; even when they do, you look forward to an explanation which most of the time goes like this - “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it”.
I remember a conversation I had with my friend when we both had just joined Deloitte together. We were debating on change; I was against change and she was advocating why change was important. I guess we never came to a consensus (stubborn ass that I was), but before I went to sleep that night, all the important changes I’d undergone in my life just kept propping up. The biggest one has to be my moving to Hyderabad from Bombay to work for Deloitte. That was the first time I’d stayed away from home, and I’d taken it up coz’ I wanted to see how life was living away from your folks. Trust me, I did not like it one bit, and had it not been for the early days with my new friends in Hyderabad, I would have packed my ass back to Bombay. But I met people who had left their abode when they were in junior college, and why they knew leaving home was a good decision since it prepared them for the life that lay ahead. You always crib in the beginning, they said, and then ‘you get used to it’. I wasn’t in awe of that idea, but what they say, somehow, is always right! I’m having a ball of a time in Hyderabad now, and even though it can’t be compared to the Bombay life I had, it has given me three important things – love, friends (always welcome) and experience.
And there was that time when we’d shifted closer to my dad’s office for his convenience, but the thought of leaving the place I’d stayed all my life (16 years then) was just too much to bear. Leaving the place meant not seeing my friends every day, not sleeping in the same bed anymore and no cricket. But then you think about it, I made many more friends, we got a better bed (:P) and not only cricket, but other games like snooker, table tennis which I wouldn’t have got to play had I been there. There were many other instances (A lazy student to a workaholic, a brawny guy to a bulky mass, to name a few) which really made me chuckle the entire time that night. But I know now why change is necessary and why we must live with it.
Heraclitus once quoted, “Change is the only constant”. This one and “Change is inevitable” are sufficient to explain why we need change. And now the best part is, when change is around the corner, you won’t even notice!