Essays

City Life

There goes a saying: "God made the country and manmade the town". It makes clear the difference between urban and rural living. Life in a city—it may be a state capital, the country's capital, or any other city with huge population—is fast and more or less unnatural. Whereas life in a village is peaceful, simple and people are close to one another and nature.

We have cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai that have big population. The state capitals have their own importance. City life has advantages as well as disadvantages. In large cities houses are usually very big and are furnished. The houses could have many storeys. If there are more than four storeys, lifts have to be provided for convenience.

 a large city has many markets. Each colony is more. Or less self-contained and residents have not to go far for shopping. In contrast, a village shop stocks only bare essentials as the buying capacity is less.

In cities there may be a good city bus service. Other modes of transport are also available. In villages, people usually walk down. In cities there are good roads for quick. Movement. In villages, there may be few roads.  One village was called Behra (with no roads) where people emerged or entered from anywhere.

In cities educational facilities are available. In rural Semi-urban urban areas, people have to travel long distances to reach educational institutions.

Medical facilities are available in cities; whereas in villages hospitals or clinics may be far away. So are postal services: in cities dak is cleared and delivered thrice or twice a day; in village it may take a long time. In a big city, a large police force operates for maintenance of law and order. In villages police chowkies may be few and far between.

In cities there are good chances of amusement and recreation; not so in villages. In cities there are food outlets or tea or coffee homes. In villages there may be dhabas or tea stalls. A lot of dust gets raised in villages; sanitation may not be up to the desired level. In cities there may be gardens or parks; in villages it is all open and water supply and drainage may not be adequate.

There are other advantages of city life. People from different states are residents. There may be foreigners staying. In that way our outlook broadens by interaction. In villages you see the same faces again and again.

In city life, there are disadvantages also. In a city we cannot enjoy the beauties of nature. City life is more or less mechanical. We live cut off from nature. One cannot enjoy the sight of open green fields, of fluttering birds, animals and flowers or the beauty of sunset and break of dawn. One has to face competition in every way in city life—it is complicated. People in cities are materialistic and concerned with their own welfare and rise. Village folk are simple and have rustic wisdom.

It would be a good idea to create facilities, inclusive of employment and work, in villages so that migration to cities is stopped. Cities otherwise tend to become overcrowded and problematic. In villages there is so much space around that you can breathe freely and live under the open sky.

Do You Know

The place you live in can be called an urban settlement only if it has, (I) a minimum population of 5000; (ii) more than 75 per cent of its working population engaged in non-agricultural activities; (iii) 1000 or more persons per sq. kilometer.