The City Of Others

Long back in 1989,a young lad Kumar who arrived fresh from Kashmir after graduated from University of kashmir had a dream to be a successful entrepreneur.Prior to this he was associated with an automobile company in Ropar district of Terrorists torn state of Punjab.
An indiscriminate killings of labourers,one evening, in the premises of automobile company by unknown terrorists had shaken the confidence of most of the employees then at that company and many decided to leave the concern and search job somewhere else than the capital city of Punjab.

That is how Kumar also forced to leave that concern and his dream job of being associated with automobile production where he was becoming slowly and slowly professionally famous as Production engineer.

One morning he himself alongwith other friends was in The capital city of Delhi.Of course the city was not as crowded as today and had the population of around 70 lakhs .Most of the private job unlike today was grabed by the south indians.They had the image of simple,honest and hard workers.It was very easy to get a job and thereafter a shelter on rent.People from rest of India, especially from North,north east and eastern part were given least priority with regard to job and a residence on rent.

It took many years to change this mind set of Delhite affluent people and finally share of rest of the Indians in that pie increased to the extent that they were totally replaced today.
Struggle is the part of the life.Life too take a shape with those sweet and sour memory.No one must have complain with their life as it progressed and Kumar too find himself sometimes with the stream and sometimes against the stream in the life struggle and was moving slowly and slowly towards his goal.Soon he got an offer from India’s new aviation company and joined leaving behind the bad memory of Ropar and started searching shelter in Delhi.Soon he settled in heart of the city in INA colony.

It was a dream come true for a small town boy who finally got a job in the capital city of India.He feels proud of himself, back his hometown he had an image of a successful person.But the struggle does not end here.Big cities have their own problems.Everyday he has to travel more than 20 to 25 km by the city bus(DTC bus).It was really difficult to get into the DTC bus whose both fwd and rear doors bulging with hanging people by its door rod and nearby window.Soon he too find the way how to get into and even started enjoying the huge rush inside and sometimes the proximity of a young girl in that crowd.

There was always a chance to meet person of your choice if you are in the bus of a particular number at a specific time.Friendship develops with few as a frequent traveller of a DTC Bus but in the long way of the life they were finally forgotten and loose the track of them.City also increased manifolds in these 20 years.Once it seems sensitive,had emotions and recognises their residents become self centered,emotionless and even the next door residents is unaware of the happening to their neighbour.
He was happy to be in this city as he found as their home place similar to his small town.Small town has its own peculiarity of being very sensitive,you will be recognised in every part of the town wherever you go.People were concerned and recognises you.I find the same quality of Delhi till the end of 90s but soon changes were very fast,high rise buildings,change of mode of transportation from Cycle and motorcycle to a four Wheeler and so the attitude of people.The cost of life increases many times.Each member of the family started engaging oneself to earn to meet their both ends.Kumar was also not different.He also succeed in the life slowly and got what a common middle class dream to own.But in this process he found himself amongst the city of stones.No mercy ,no emotion,No recognition of one’s existence.Living his life as it is to be lived with.The progress and success in ones life is truley ones own,no one is there to recognise share and praise. One live or die who cares in this city.Everyone has its own problems,he is busy finding the solution.Each one has its own hypothetical pride and proud of his achievements though when he suffers in life and no one asked his whereabout ,he realises and analyses of so called success in the city of others.One spent more years of his life in this city than their own town but still struggle to being accepted in such mega city.Such cities never accept outsider and at the end you realises it is better to be back in your town amongst your own people.

I still cherish the memory of my neighbour where i stayed 20 years back,care and emotions exhibited by those in yesteryears.Running behind a fast moving DTC Bus to get into and the satisfaction after getting into the bus and so on.....