The flipside of living alone

The sound of living alone in your own home, working, and earning, all for yourself, is not just interesting, but quite mouth watering to say the least. And so here I am, in Pune, working, and living. Its fun, no doubt. The freedom from responsibility, no one to answer to, and no one to stop you. Yeah, how liberating is that!!!
But, ummm well, get down to earth, my boy.
Like all others, this coin too has its flipside too, and a big freaking flip side at that. For starters, well, where do I start???!!!! The food in office is deplorable, cooking is out of question, travelling in Pune is like navigating an asteroid shower in space, the heat can dry you into a log of firewood in no time.
FOOD. Big problem. Compounded by the fact that office food is barely edible, and hotel food aint manna either. I cant cook, and dont even want to.
TRAVELLING. Problem. The roads are a mosaic of patchy tar, and that too only where they exist. Where they dont, it gives you a sneak-peek into what Mars must be like. Two-wheelers are mad, car drivers are insane, truck drivers are lunatics, and bus drivers are bloody maniacs. Nothing less. Distances are huge, especially my office from home.
WORK. Its a fact, tried and tested, 'first-job' suck!!! I hate my cubicle, I hate my office, I hate the place where it is situated (The place is called 'Bhosari', you can't blame me for hating it, now, can you?) The work I have to do, makes 12th std look like PHd studies. And that is boring.
FRIENDS. or rather the lack of them. BIGGEST problem. Miss everyone a lot.

But, you see, cant keep cribbing for life, can we? So I have learnt to handle it. Found this good restaurant nearby, that serves decent dinner. Cannot avoid lunch in office, so be it. Learnt to eat that as well. I make coffee and breakfast in the morning. At times when we get fed up with this routine, theres always Smokin' Joes or Janaseva Bhojanalay to liven things up. Nimish has bought a bike, and travelling by that saves a truckload o time. Heck, I learnt to ride one myslef, and am actually using my bro's bike myself! Work can be dreary, but I make a consious effort to do new things there. Learn new concepts, talk to everyone around office, look for opportunities improvements in the existing system, et al...Friends, well, that was a bit tougher. Made some new friends in office, really nice people. Got together with a lot of my cousins. Its actually quite interesting, I mean all these years, we hardly met, and now we are really good friends, apart from being related. I regularly keep in touch with old friends, internet is your best pal at such times. Got a partner in Nimish. "Its not like we hold hands and take windy walks or something", we're just team members, and also flatmates. Know each other since college, so it is great company.
But nevertheless, I still miss my friends a lot. Miss ALL my college friends, my building friends, and all the others too. Miss the times we had together, miss the fun we had together, miss the fights we had together, miss the reunions we had together, miss the trips we had together, miss every moment spent together. Cant really help it at times, being 200km away isnt too much these days, but it still is quite a bit for a spftware professional who doesnt get too many holidays. All in all, however far I might be, how many new people i meet, I will always, ALWAYS remember these people of old.