There are some places that you hear about, read about, see photographs of... and you add your own imagination into all of that and build up a picture in your head. You finally actually go there and you experience this humongous disappointment and you feel as if your own mind has let you down.
Has this happened to you? Which place/experience was it?
Pottery Town was one such let down for me. I've lived in Bangalore almost all my life, but had never been there. So when I thought of buying some clay cookware, some planters, etc., we thought why not go there and check out the place. When my sister warned me that it's not worth going there, I should have listened! (This is not an I-told-you-so moment sis, back off!)
Several factors combined to contribute to this disappointment. First of all, there is heavy metro construction happening all around the area and there were several roadblocks that led us away from that place. We relied on Google Maps (not always a good idea but I never learn!), but it didn't consider the roadblocks, so we drove around in circles for a while. We got stuck at really narrow roads lined with houses, shops, gunny bags, parked trucks, cars and bikes, cattle, where people's lives spilled out on to the streets and for a while I thought that's it, we're never getting out of here!
We finally escaped, thought OK, let's park the car a few streets away and walk. But finding a decent parking space in Bangalore is an entirely new post altogether. Anyway, we then parked at quite a distance and got an auto to take us there!
Once we finally got there we realized how close we had actually come there before. Mind you, we were still laughing at our silliness that time.
We skipped and dodged some muck on the road and stood and looked around, to see a few shops with some sad looking pots, planters and kulhads. The streets were waterlogged, there was muck and garbage all around, and the shopfronts were choked with junk. Nothing at all like I had imagined.
Maybe it was our unfortunate timing too. Deepavali is just over, and summer is still a while away. There are not many buyers around this time, and this is kind of a slow phase for the potters. There was a woman in front of one shop who we started talking to, and she confirmed this for us. All the things you want will be ready only January-February, she said.
Moral of the story is, don't always believe social media pictures are the reality, go where you want to go, but don't always expect things to turn the way you imagined it. Prepare to be surprised/shocked/disappointed. But I guess this is not to say you will always be disappointed. There have been times when I have been pleasantly surprised, exhilarated even and some places have proved to be sooo much better than my imagination. So I might not go to Pottery Town again (or maybe I'll change my mind in January) but I definitely will not stop exploring new or out of my places! 😆
(Also, sometimes do listen to your sister.)