Of big cities and lives.
I am not yet acclimatized to big cities. Eighteen years of my life, I have stayed in small cities and towns. When I was a teenager, I always feared if I would ever make it to the big cities, it seemed everything started in big cities. I still remember in my school, “The Hindu” newspaper was delivered only after 10am , since we didn’t have any printing centers nearby, I am of course talking about Bijapur , now named Vijayapura. Don’t blame me yet for my FOMO, but major reason for this was very briefly, I had a privilege to stay for a couple of months in Namma Bengaluru. The friends I made in Malleshwaram in 2002–03, amazed me. They not only introduced me to Pokémon and other global TV shows, most importantly, they introduced me to internet and computers. I remember saving 10 Rs on summer ice-creams to browse ½ hour internet nearby. I think Bengaluru had internet café’s in every other street, unlike any other places I had seen. My primary school had introduced LOGO programming language to me some years before, in summer of 2003, barely when I was 10,Bengalurru made me so fascinated about the thing I could do and learn, and then it happened, we moved back to Bijapur again.
In 2003 at Sainik School computer literacy was almost next to zero for many cadets. The only regular computer classes held were for class 11 and 12th. I was sad that I moved from programming to not having access to computers for whole academic year . Again, I am not the only one. The issue doesn’t just stop at internet or computer, smaller cities always had many disadvantages, take for example of a popular magazine, “The Reader’s Digest” it was really difficult to subscribe , in fact it was unwritten rule to expect 10 copies a year unless you subscribe it in advance, and to subscribe this we have to get in line at “the most customer friendly bank of India” SBI , the excruciating process of getting inline and being yelled by staff for no reasons could make you wonder why don’t I just stay home and sleep. The colleges and universities in these places had almost next to none exposure to the respective field.
It was as if the whole city was one big factory churning out the mediocre workforce for the colossal markets, whose exceptional byproducts were sometimes successful leaders.
I had the privilege of attending one of the best schools and I may sound whiney , but hear me out, getting a peek of what you can be if given the right environment and then closing out on it is far more brutal than being in the bliss of ignorance. I have seen many sports prodigy friends who could have been Olympians if only they were guided right. I have seen many math, chemistry, physics and language prodigies being shunned for being in wrong place at the wrong time. At times, I feel the big cities, parasites the opportunities and tragedies of small towners. Yet, it’s totally right to say not all the big city folks make it big. I feel everyone has innate god given potential, and not being able to reach it by any means should be considered as crime against humanity. Imagine a farmer’s son being a talented artist, there is little to no hope for him to make it big, again for being in a wrong place at wrong time. On contrary to this, personalities like Steve Jobs made it big for being in right time at the right place.
But all said and done I am in love with small towns, things turned around by 2010. Internet has now penetrated to many small cities, goods and services are now more accessible to larger folks than ever before, but still urban migration isn’t stopping. I have dozens of friends, specially in IT field who keep chuckling that they could easily do their work staying at comforts of their native place. “All I need is a good internet, and now I got it.” they say. Post pandemic, I am almost not hopeful about it, but if done this would be the greatest miracle that could happen. There are umpteen corporate roles that can be done remotely if the right culture and precedence is set on expectations. This also goes to many courses, that can be done relatively cheaper at home and with greater peace of mind. The ultimate time to slow urban migration is now than ever. There are physical limitations that every big cities bears, I remember Deepavali holidays the busses trains and every other means of transportations are full, expensive and frustrating. Even, on regular days, it’s a common sight for many folks to pick up their luggage to the offices and move to their bus depot on the same day to go to their homes. This of course is due to traffic congestions.
Even though there is only 30 min difference between 4:30 pm and 5:00pm, but it can translate to difference between 30-minute commute to two hours commute to your destinations.
Many companies have tried to beat the peak hour traffic by having flexible shift, but even that isn’t working. The answer to this should be urgent need to decongest big cities. There is a cobra effect of sorts when it comes to bringing businesses in smaller cities, the owners say there isn’t a perfect customer base and customers say there aren’t many companies, now is the right time to close both the ends.
My zeal to stay in big city Bengaluru (big city) got saturated by 2 years. I am not yet acclimatized to traffics, I was lucky to work from 2pm to 11pm shift, I barely got out of my locality even on weekends, and could make it to home town a day before on long weekend since my job role could be done from home. There is certain calmness and beauty in small town and to relish it only the salaries of big cities can make that happen. The quest of our generation is not just to attain the spiritual enlightenment but to attain this balance of staying with folks back home yet make enough “paisa” for surviving. There has been certain stigma associated with staying back at native place. In fact, if you were from Bijapur, “you will remain in Bijapur” was an insult more often hurled at you by your teachers/professors/relatives/parents. I never understood, why it was such a bad thing to build a comfortable life for yourself in small towns, aren’t we aware that there is no amount of gold than bring peace of mind, aren’t we aware there is no joy than being with your family? Instead of demanding for a better life at our places why did we resort to run from our small towns? Why weren’t we firm on building if not world class, at least basic institutions at our places? Why did living in a big cities, and owning its small “30 by 40 “site suddenly became lucrative than having acres of fertile field at our villages? How long can we evade our challenges than facing it? The technological advances have made little to no help in this regard, today Virar to Panvel and Badlapur to Madh is considered Mumbai. Kengeri to Whitefield and Bommasandra to Kempegowda International airport is considered Bengaluru. My mind stops making distinctions between Delhi, Noida, Gurugram (Gurgaon). The ecosystem of big cities is more cliched than ever, let me bash Koramangala before than any other place , the “ecosystem” is so strained that I couldn’t make UPI money transfer with 4G internet connection with an iPhone. Yes, this is around the Jyothi Niwas college street. I wish all the upcoming startups a very best of luck , but that being said we can’t ignore the hard realities of the pathetic footpaths , the pumped up real estate prices, the good old traffic congestions , this is no way a pot shot at government , but a hard reality of rapid urbanization.
The heroes who should be lauded are also those who have created jobs in small towns. Those stock traders who have found their niche in it, at comforts of their small towns. The hip cafés of small towns, the fast food franchises and the fashion retails of small towns, the doctors and dentists of AIIMS and other big institutes who are practicing in small towns, small scale industries and few IT companies are harbingers of this utopia. These folks should be rewarded, awarded and should be made to feel special. The primary schools today in small towns can afford to have same exposure than big cities. The kids of above-mentioned folks will not live in the FOMO of big city opportunities. Opportunities is just like any other resource should be decentralized. There is no reason to blame government, more often than not, I still believe we get the government we are. I see no reason why wouldn’t government work on the same if we were to make it a point to develop small towns, . There is need to change the mentality of people about big cities: horrible traffic, pollution, lack of access to fresh vegetables and fruits , unsustainable climate impacts, stressful lifestyles are its realities. There is an ecosystem in every place, natural to it and we should nurture it. For example, Bijapur, is home to many gifted cyclists, ample velodromes and coaches could have churned out world class athletes, but what we have instead ? Few national level champions and many dead cyclist in road accidents. There should be a way to nurture local ecosystem than to disrupt it. This indeed, goes without saying that individuals seeking different career paths should have access to it at their convinces. The only limitations we should have is that of geographical, unless some kid born in Chennai wants to be have a career in mountaineering, he shouldn’t feel fascinated to move around. As, surprising it may seem, I got acquainted with someone from a prestigious institute in Delhi, I said to her welcome to the southernmost city you have ever visited in your life: Indore, cultural differences of various regions is something I will keep aside for simplicity.
I believe the start of civilization can be taken when humans learnt agriculture, hence we should more often than not, see it as a gross violation of human right so as to speak, to make someone wander in search of livelihood. There is no joy in concentrated centers of people when we have such diverse geography, diverse cultures and language. The will to create a stronghold in your place showered with facilities and incentives should just work fine. There is always a favorite café of restaurant near you, but we all long for the childhood place where our parents took us out to eat. Those cinema halls where mom brought home made chips, those lanes where we played gully cricket with our own rules , the green meadows where our ancestors are buried have unquantifiable notions attached to them, these should act as anchor for make our place special to us in our own ways. “You must cultivate your own garden” Voltaire once said, likewise “We must cultivate our own towns”
