City is a place of opportunities.
Every City has two existence - one is physical and the other one is it's soul. The soul of the city touches every city dweller and the physical entity houses them all. Now the soul of the city is a kind of eternal aspect which lends its warmth to us and the physical entity is ever changing by us. So in the process the city and we are always in a tussle to co-exist. Constant attempt to improve city does not mean keeping the original aura of the city intact at the same time.
As I said at the beginning that city is a place of opportunities and that is the reason why it attracts so many people time to time. People come from suburb or satellite towns or peripheral rural zone to the city to touch the soul of it. Now what is the soul of a city ?
If we look at the history, most of the prominent cities across the globe have evolved through - either cultural or political or economical or religious reformation. And the very base of these reformations are the people who have stirred the basic ingredients of numerous progressive movements. So these people are extraordinarily visionary. They have emerged from the lot and they have constantly been challenging the existence of many aspects which affect the life of citizens. Because of these people there have been many other people who got influenced. We find these visionary people among politicians, religious leaders, poets, musicians, performers, scientists, social leaders, sports personalities, artists etc. The city provokes many movements through the extra ordinary leaderships of few and that creates a spectrum of opportunities for others through collaboration and participation. At that level, city shapes our lives and at the same time it is upto us how do we react to those situations to shape up the city in order to create even larger dream for future. Very often it is seen that this process blurr the fine line between conservation and momentary greed which results in to a disaster. And most of the modern cities are the glaring examples of this fact.
Perhaps I'm one among a handful few in Bangalore city who bisects the city everyday and see it up close - but that is the physical part of the city which we are responsible for. I can see the change very clearly as I'm seeing it through for last two decades. And a lot have changed. I still remember, almost 15 years back, after lunch at office, few of us used to go out for a walk and we had to wear warm jackets even in the afternoons of June. Which is unthinkable now. So we are shaping this city towards a temporary gain but actually slow poisoning the city. But that does not mean city has stopped giving us back. It is still accommodating new dwellers who are coming with high aspirations and settling down for betterment. And the city is still a place of hope and opportunities. The soul of the city is still pumping high on energy but we are failing to protect it from dying physically. Due to lack of vision. There is a common thread of similar problem across the global cities. But the deterioration rate differs due to the level of sensitivity of the citizens from city to city.
The city has such a phenomenal hierarchical structuring of everything which can lead us to a sustainable pattern. City has a birth and naturally it would die also. But the soul of the city which carries a reflection of civilisation can have more meaningful life through our understanding of it's physicality.
