Life in a metro

By Mayuresh Bhardwaj

Get up early, sleep late, work hard and rush to cash in on every single opportunity!! Yes, this is the life the urban metropolis has engineered for its denizens.

The life of human is not limited to staying alive and surviving, as many may insist – the modern person also must consider many other nuances, from being social to seeking contentment and peace. And, all of this is less and less easy to find these days. All kinds of people – from beggars to business tycoons, from innocent villagers to street smart urbanites and cunning politicians – are in a permanent rush for something, and that something is a secured and contented future. Naturally then, the average human is confronted with this spectrum of humanity.

A large aspect of life in the city is also about ensuring comfort and the availability of all amenities of for a fulfilling life, along with suitable infrastructure and a modern outlook. We might even say that cities cannot be restricted to a particular class or religion or caste – the entity subsumes everything and includes humans from every aspect of life under one homogenous umbrella.

The human civilization has undergone many changes and developments with the passage of time; science has played an admirable role in the change of livelihood of women and men.

But, during these years, decades and centuries, we are also rapidly registering that all the facilities and comforts that a city can provide are not unlimited, and heavily impacted by the rapid rise in population. This then results several inadequacies and many disastrous changes, like increasing pollution, thanks to the massive rise in vehicles used and the approaching doom of global warming. With the very atmosphere and air we breathe faltering every second, we India seems to host too many cities that are globally ranked as the worst polluted. According to a survey, Noida – a rapidly developing metro – ranks sixth in the world, with a pollution index of 95.55, followed by Delhi at eight position; though Mumbai may be slightly better in comparison, the nation’s commercial capital also ranks 17th on the same list.

The decay is not limited to this facet – somewhere along the line, this unsustainable growth also hampers culture and beauty. Any city’s crime rate, for instance, supports this. For the sanity of culture to be maintained, it also helps for each and every one of us to remain grounded and in touch with our heritage, despite the dynamic progress of life and its many blinding successes.

Ultimately, we have to help each other and take into consideration the whole diversity of problems faced by the people of the country when it comes to the government. Being aloof is never the answer – as a part of society, if we have rights, then we have certain duties as well.

(Mayuresh Bhardwaj is a student of Indira School of Communication, Pune.)