Where did those days go?

 Vijay garg (vkmalout@gmail.com)

Every place has been made a mapmaker-like 'metro city'. Whatever city is seen, its effect and identity, all have ended in the tradition of this global village. Moradabad was known for brass. Brass items are missing there and that famous street was missing where many artisans used to meet doing small and big brass work together. Went to Aligarh and searched for artisans of belts, trophies and medals, but could not find them there. The belt lane has been demolished and a 'multiplex' has been made there. Artisans are now labourers and are gone. Ajmer was known to be famous for rose and gulkand, now both of these have to be searched for there. Where did those people go? Now while going to any city one gets scared that big commercial shops and complexes may not have changed it too. How strange the cities have become! Kanpur used to have a Kanpuriya dialect. It is completely missing. Some people are now bringing it alive as storytellers. But how did this happen? A city is a living philosophy of life. It must remain. But today even the towns are turning into ostentatious cities and villages are now forced to become cities. There is a mobile phone in every hand. It has changed the look of the cities and made everyone something like a copycat. Even the cities must be silent sometime and think what we were and what our residents are making us into. It's a funny story.

A young man takes his rural grandmother to Mumbai. There is an event in his office. He takes his village grandmother dressed in jeans and a beautiful kurta instead of a cotton dhoti. But in a few moments everything comes to the fore due to grandmother's words and simple nature. At first there the young man was scared about what people would say, but after that in a typical lost style, Dadi fascinates everyone with her folk songs and everyone makes that event memorable by dancing with Dadi. Only then does that young man understand that destroying the originality of what it is, by plastering it, is foolishness and extremely ignorant. Today people are going to live in compartment-like flats by renouncing this originality and getting trapped in the web of false and misleading advertisements. These are the same people who once used to watch movies in cinemas with single screens. Samosa was available there at a reasonable price. When he came out, he would return with greens for the next day from the vegetable cart. But these people now watch films in 'multiplexes'. Samosas worth Rs 10 or Rs 20 are bought for Rs 100. Don't know how they feel while doing this! Today, there is another thing in cities. Earlier there were open fields at every step. Gulmohar and Palash trees used to be found standing, now they are missing. The gardens used to be so beautiful, but now they have been covered with cement and gardens have been made there. There used to be a cup of tea at every hundred steps, now it is not.

But there are definitely tea-coffee clubs, where tea worth Rs 10 is available for Rs 80 or Rs 100. Not only this, it is written on the wall in the club that be silent, keep quiet, don't make noise and people are also sitting. Who would drink tea and coffee at a place like Marghat? The pleasure of eating parantha at a dhaba is no longer available in the city or town. If you go out on a morning or evening walk in the city, it looks like an antisocial walk. Everyone has something like a fly in their ear, which is called 'earphone'. No one talks to anyone. Earlier in the cities, on going out for morning and evening walks, the sellers of groundnuts, chaat and papad used to move around. So many things used to happen through them. But now they are all missing. What should they do in the city? Now everything is 'home delivery'.

This is the trend now. Fairs are no longer held in the city, now carnivals are happening. The chaat which used to be available for Rs 10 in the fair is now available for Rs 100 in the 'carnival' of any 'event company'. Everything else in 'carnival' also looks strange and awkward. So many global cities are being built in the country, but this is the danger. There is no match for the sweetness of the lullaby. If you start living in the world and forget your food and lifestyle, it may seem good at the moment, but later you miss these things a lot. Then there is only regret in hand!