Musings of a newcomer…to the city

To me every city looks the same. Being from the countryside I have always found a visit to the city claustrophobic and repugnant. The incessant honking of vehicle horns, the befuddling maze of flyovers, piled up buildings, the polluted air, water, the busyness of the streets, cluttered lanes, and the nonchalant attitude of everyone who passes you by…

And now I am going to be a part of it.

I always see the city as an abode of ironies. Beside tall buildings and posh super malls are people who literally live in squalor. Behind high paying jobs are unhappy families. Behind successful bosses are cheating wives and behind every cosmetic smile, I suspect, there is a silent tear…

We do not know our neighbours. We do not care to know. We better be off knowing less people or who knows they may ask us for some favor! We prefer dogs over human beings. We do not go to meet a friend who is staying far in town, instead we prefer to “hangout” in the flashy and flamboyant world inside a shopping mall.  We try to reach faster, elbow our way out and waste not a single minute. And while on bus or train we do not talk to the person sitting beside, we plug in our earphones and listen to music. Every moment is the fear that someone will cheat us or take us for a ride. We need to be careful, calculating and callous. We don’t talk to people open-hearted. That will make us look foolishly naïve. Ah Yes, but we can do that in reality shows. We don’t mind revealing our darkest and deepest secrets and washing our dirty linen in front of an entire television audience. And yes, we become celebrities overnight for that.

To me the biggest irony is the oft-encountered phrase- “in the heart of the city.” My question is- Where is the “heart” in the “city”???

But more than anything, I feel the city is one desperate mold. It tries its best to cast all of us into a particular shape. Although we come here for different reasons with many different hopes and aspirations, it finally makes us crave for the same things. Better paying job, better apartment, better car, better locality, better people with better looks and even better bank balance… And we are all made to compete for these. These are always less and we are more and we are made to believe that our accomplishments will only happen at the cost of someone losing it. We don’t want to miss the chance! 

(Guys I know there is a lot of pessimism here, but i have always preferred pessimism over status quo. At least the former helps us drive home some points. Status quo leads us no where! An editor of a magazine, after reading this said: "This is good, but just just add some positive points also, you know...some positive points, some negative points..." Well isn't that what most of the writings out there are all about. Supposedly balanced, safe-sided, status quo!)

 

-Bidyut

Image Credit: Gabriel David (http://www.flickr.com/people/assortedrobotmeat/)