i do think places are 'alive' and that each place has a strong vibe to it. i've been to many places, both at home and abroad, and what i've experienced is that, the first vibes you get in a new place are more often than not pretty accurate. every place has a soul, and the first few days/weeks in a place either make you fall in love with the place, or make you simply comfortable enough to exist in the place, or on the worse side give you a total dislike! like when i first came to pune, fresh out of school, i fell in love with it, and pune 10 years back was a lot more appealing than what it is now...it's still more wonderful than loads of other indian cities/towns. pune has a quiet vibrance to it, a very homecoming feel to it. it embraces you altogether and even after living there for a decade, i could happily return and live there anytime. like when i went to the UK for the first time, i fell in love with it - and the love carried on for all the time i was there. its my favorite place in all the world. when i went to the great big land of america for the first time, although i did not fall in absolute love with it, but it was still very exciting, a positive vibe to whatever was waiting to unfold. i remember going to amritsar for the first time when my dad was posted on the border there - it was the first time i felt like a true punjabi being there. everything about that town is lovely - the food, the people, the lanes, the colors, the dhabas...there are so many places apart from these that i've lived in, some i liked, some i loved, while others just became phases in my life....now that i find myself in singapore, a very very organised, very beautiful and very comfortable place, with nothing to complain at all till now, i just don't find myself falling in love with it...i just don't get that vibe here....it doesn't flutter my heart or my spirit....it's just not love at first sight! i so hope that this first vibe, or lack of it turns out to be an exception.