Big Cities, Small Towns: Which is which?

For those of us who spent our whole life in the big cities, it's impossible for us to imagine walking down a street without hearing roaring engines, horns and the low, almost indistinguishable murmurs of bystanders and passer-by. Every big city essentially has the same feel, if not the same look. People around us are a constant presence, meant to be taken for granted as fixtures of the environment and not really noticed as real people. Even though the city is big, the lanes and by-lanes are congested and make you claustrophobic. Everything moves. Even if you take the same bus everyday, we don't notice people who travel with us. We never become their friends. Every minute is exciting but somewhat scary. Big cities have a bad reputation. You could have spent every moment of your existence in them, but you still can't make it through an empty tunnel or a dimly lit street without subconsciously quickening your steps and breathing a sigh of relief when you're through. Everything- even if it's dingy, dark and like a prison- is big in some way.

So why is it that life in the big city is so....small? Why did lingering feeling of being submerged in a crowd? Why this constant fear of being replaced, of not being indispensable? Why is it that we read so many exciting things in the paper, but nothing exciting ever really happens to us? The buildings are tall, but they look as if they may crumble on you any minute. You can't see the sky, if you're in Mumbai you can't see the stars. Somewhere in the largeness of the place, our own lives got diminished and we can't find any way to grow because there's no space to.

Despite knowing all this, if someone asked me if I'd like to move to a quainter place, I wouldn't say 'yes'. I wouldn't even say 'no', but my answer could never, ever be in the affirmative. I guess no matter how much we hate the pressures and dangers of the big city, we can't move out of them. A lot of people say they'll go back to their hometown after retirement but many of them don't. Perhaps it's the fact that habit gets the better of us. Or maybe, going to a small town is like regressing. Truth be told, the world over, how successfully you moved out of your hometown is a measure for success. If you lived in a village, you should go to the town. If you live in a town, your destination should be a metropolitan (and cosmopolitan) city. And if the big, bad city has always been your home, you should catch a flight out of the city. Your actions have more at stake. Big city means fulfilling big dreams. And dreams are what we live for. Some will be shattered, some will come true. Some will be locked away and be the source of our dissatisfaction. But we will never be able to go to a smaller place.

All we can do, is sit in our tiny apartment in a world which is not so tiny and go over the things we need to do- be careful, be grateful and remember, Zara Hatke, Zara Bachke, Yeh Hai Sheher Meri Jaan.