Kudos to the English Dept, Marvellous Topic indeed.
The City. I was born in one. Grew up in another. Visited a few. But settled in a completely new one.
On the surface, I can say I am happy, what with the home that I live in with the perfect family, fabulous friends, a well known college to go to and ample freedom to top it all off. However, very often I find myself sitting in the suffocating corner of a bus wondering if there is indeed, grass that’s greener on the other side.
To describe myself in a nutshell, id say I’m exceedingly ‘outdoorsy’. As a kid I loved climbing up ladders no matter how high, watering our garden (and watering myself in the process) and making mud puddings with my imaginary friend Suresh. When I grew up I went for wilderness camps and became an active athlete in school. All of these small happenstances molded me into a driven, nature-loving girl with dreams to make a difference in this world.
However, there always is a catch or figuratively, a large and sharp pin waiting to burst your happy bubble. In my scenario, it calls itself the City.
It is quite small mind you! But bustling with people everywhere, where oxygen is like gold (too precious to waste), water is either scarce and constantly evaporating or clogged with mosquito eggs and excess Carbon dioxide is the new next-door neighbor.
Even as recent as a decade ago, the city seemed magical and full of promise for those coming from smaller cities and towns. Siblings back home would run to the closest phone booth awaiting their brother’s exciting City stories. Tarred roads and skyscrapers were worth photographing. It isn’t the same story anymore, city life has changed drastically. Why, you might wonder. Many factors come to mind starting with over exploitation of resources, lack of hygiene to awful governance and over population. However in my opinion, it all boils down to Ignorance and lassitude.
The attitude of man has become such that he lives life for no one but himself, he thinks of life on a short-term basis, “who cares about tomorrow? Enjoy life today! “ Isn’t that correct? It is due to this sort of thinking that we have gotten ourselves in a soup. A soup that tastes like disease, smells like pollution and looks like disaster.
The point of this essay I think is to give vent to built up frustration and bring current issues into perspective. Watching trees (decades older than we are) being felled and getting caught in constant traffic jams is the new mantra we have to live by. Everyone needs to know that our current situation aptly fits the phrase “Desperate times call for desperate measures” but also that there is still time to rectify our mistakes by knowing and patiently doing what is right, instead of what is more attractive and appealing!
So, what thoughts do you think run through the mind of a person with such radical views as she enters her home after a 12-kilometer journey back home from college? After literally being mauled in the bus, avoiding successive potholes on the road that it almost seems like a dance sequence? After swallowing in that fear of being followed or watched? You would probably expect her thoughts to seem more negative or pessimistic. Surprisingly, her thoughts are completely drowned by the music that fills her ears (I-pods are magical), nudging in buses actually keeps her awake after long drawn days in college and unrelenting alertness keeps the stalkers at large.
See, the key is not to be cynical all the time, it is to see hope when no one else can, only then can you be an Environmentalist……………….
Living in a Big City.
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