– Amal Mohan
Cities: The patches of land with made-up boundaries having names with their unique allure, emotion and finally a local government, to keep things functional.
But is that all cities represent for us; mere patches of land? Cities, right from the time of ancient Rome to present day New York, have held an important place in history and literature. They have formed the backdrop of numerous novels, poems and films and in few cases even the center stage. In many ways, cities seem to radiate a life of their own. But falling in love with a city is so much more intricate than falling in love with people.
Falling in love with a new city, is akin to your first crush. Initial encounters are often mixed in nature. But soon, the charm begins to grow on you. Before long, you find yourself taking off on those long walks, letting the raindrops from the first monsoon showers trickle down your face and routinely losing yourself to the mesmerizing beauty of the evening sky, as the sun dips beneath the horizon. Thus, opportunities to fall in love, come thick and fast.
But does it work the same way with a city you grew up in? Perhaps not. The process here is a little complicated and the city plays on a different string of emotions. There are basically three phases that are a part of growing up in any city.
The first phase is quite simple. It’s called “Purpose”, i.e. the reason you are in that city. It’s not something you can necessarily control. Sometimes you are born in it, sometimes you aren’t. You might have ended up in a particular city, simply because your family has been living there for the last three generations. Or perhaps, you had to move because of your parent’s work. Your main purpose in that patch of land might be something as basic as say, schooling. Your life there consists mainly of school and home, perhaps a few friends along the way and the little memories you manage to make; both good and bad. But having seen very little of what the world has to offer, as you learn your way through life and grow up, the city slowly grows upon you as well. You might not necessarily love it, but you find comfort in the idea that it offers familiarity and warmth; a home.
Then after a while, you begin to enter the next phase of growing up in a city. The Monotony.
This phase comes after you’ve lived through your early childhood in the city, and you are now on the cusp of adolescence. The challenges adolescence brings with it, are well documented. You are expected to think and act like an adult, place emphasis on your academics and work with a vision towards your future (engineering/ medical/cow rearing). These added stress results in your life falling into a dreary routine. You’ve a schedule which you are expected to follow rigorously. You have to be at predetermined destinations at particular times. Predictability starts to creep in. Everything becomes too monotonous. You slowly begin to dread each day and start dreaming up an escape plan from all this monotony. You seek a fresh start, far away from a place that once radiated warmth and you were once happy to call home, but now appears bleak and uninviting. When you finally manage to succeed in moving to your dream “Utopian city”, your whole association with your city begins to change.
For then you enter the third phase. Nostalgia.
Your “utopian city” offers everything your previous city did not. Like the honeymoon phase of any relationship, everything is exciting, new and fun! You observe how it’s radically different from the place you grew up in, often better. You go around exploring , navigating your way through the pretty little streets, visiting art galleries, going out to fancy restaurants and basically having the time of your life. But before long, the familiar emptiness and dreariness starts to creep in. The routine that you were so determined to break away from, comes back to haunt you again. The initial lustre and allure fade and you are back to square one. There is something missing and you are not quite sure what.
It is then, that your mind drifts off to your previous city. Suddenly, you are longing for that air of familiarity, that once comforted you. You realize, how alien these new streets are, compared to the streets you knew like the back of your hand. The road that led to your school, the road where your best friend lived, the playground, the market area…
That’s probably when you will finally realise, as much as you despised it, as much as you cursed the traffic, you really do miss the city you grew up in, and then the age old cliché makes sense; it’s no longer a city, it’s an emotion!
Every time you go back to that city again, the nostalgia rings true. You look forward to every visit, eager to take in that familiar air, to let yourself smile at the sight of landmarks, streets, coffee shops, restaurants that had become innately woven with your childhood and adolescent narrative and you surprisingly realize, how the weather seems a lot more pleasant now.
At last, you’ve truly fallen head over heels in love with that city. You’ve had your ups and downs, the sunny days, the rainy days and everything in between. You can now truly call that city, “home”. In the seemingly endless debates amongst people talking up the case for different cities, you know that deep down, it matters not, which city is adjudged the best. For you have a significant and meaningful history, relationship and even little secrets, all of which makes your city the best place in the planet for you.
The above statement would be true for any place that you’ve stayed in for a significant period of time. You live in a city long enough, you tend to get familiar with various locations. You remember all the small stores and coffee shops. You know the street names by heart. You know when best to visit the ever crowded, popular monuments and landmarks. The essence of the city, slowly seeps into you. The food. The lingo. The aromas. The noises. The vibrant colours. All of it.
Before long, the city truly defines you and every time you leave the city, you leave a part of yourself behind. That’s perhaps, the beauty of falling in love with cities.
Every time you walk through them, they whisper and reach out to you, through the shared memories that you have created there over time.
You can definitely hear the voices. You just have to be very quiet…
The ISTE-NITK Blog 