I like living in New York, especially in comparison to Storrs. The obvious reasons you might think of are - I like fast paced life and the infinite possibilities offered by a metro like New York. Those reasons are not entirely off the mark but the most attractive aspect of living in New York for me is that the building I live in is made of bricks.
The worst thing about living in Storrs is the wooden houses. In my mind it has a sense of impermanence. A wooden house does not seem like a secure structure I can call home. It has nothing to do with fire hazard. My Indian mind does not think about risk to life so much.
A house made of wood for me is either a cabin in the woods you would visit once in a while or a temporary structure created till the actual home, office is built. More often than not, wooden house means a shack built by a family that comes to the city to find a living and does not have enough for two meals.
When Parag and I were talking about development index and how it is measured, we realized that, in India, an important aspect of development index is houses and roads being 'Kaccha' or 'Pakka'. Kaccha (literally half baked/ uncooked) w.r.t. a road is a dirt road in contrast to a pakka (literally, well made, well baked) which is a tar road. Kaccha houses are the ones which do not use stone, brick and or morter. They are supposed to be lower in index to the Pakka houses using stone, brick and morter. So judging with that ruler, Storrs, or for that matter any suburb in US, would be one of the developmentally challenged neigborhoods. ;)
The worst thing about living in Storrs is the wooden houses. In my mind it has a sense of impermanence. A wooden house does not seem like a secure structure I can call home. It has nothing to do with fire hazard. My Indian mind does not think about risk to life so much.
A house made of wood for me is either a cabin in the woods you would visit once in a while or a temporary structure created till the actual home, office is built. More often than not, wooden house means a shack built by a family that comes to the city to find a living and does not have enough for two meals.
When Parag and I were talking about development index and how it is measured, we realized that, in India, an important aspect of development index is houses and roads being 'Kaccha' or 'Pakka'. Kaccha (literally half baked/ uncooked) w.r.t. a road is a dirt road in contrast to a pakka (literally, well made, well baked) which is a tar road. Kaccha houses are the ones which do not use stone, brick and or morter. They are supposed to be lower in index to the Pakka houses using stone, brick and morter. So judging with that ruler, Storrs, or for that matter any suburb in US, would be one of the developmentally challenged neigborhoods. ;)
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