There is just “something” about a city that you can call home. The immense comfort of having known every bit of the place, the joy of having explored it with your friends, the familiarity with the best local shops and the pleasures of growing up carefree around your loved ones. All of it never fails to fill your heart with warmth. The understanding of the city is so uncanny that upon revisiting after a long time, you can’t help but look around with amusement at the effect of changing times.
Perhaps, that is why moving to a new city can be an overwhelming experience. The real struggle is hardly about finding the right accommodation or the perfect locality to live in. Instead, it lies in being utterly clueless about the ways of the city and its unsaid rules — the knowledge of which is only limited to its residents.
Having moved to Mumbai a few years ago, I remember staring at queues for auto rides outside office complexes to the nearest local station (suburban railway) where the usual negotiation about the fare could be considered a waste of time and effort. Almost, as if for the mundane chores, people had turned into robots. Another instance of encountering one of these “unsaid rules” was understanding the ways of navigating the city through the complex web of public transportation and learning the intricacies of catching the right local train during the peak hours. For some usual commuters, who were kind enough, my body language was a clear indication for throwing in some advice here and there; for the others, I was just a lost piece of puzzle disturbing the harmony.
These initial experiences of moving into a city can usually define the set of emotions and feelings people associate with the place. Further, if you have ever set foot in one of these “popular” cities, it is almost impossible to not indulge in the playful banter about which city is better to live in. It is not difficult to see people who have grown up in these places talk fondly of them, even conveniently overlooking the problems of pollution, congestion and heavy traffic. The spirit of the city, the food, ambience and aesthetics are usually the front runners in this tussle of what can be called an “indeterminable debate”.
While figuring out the ways of living in Mumbai and keeping sense amid numerous moments of chaos, I couldn’t help but wonder how popular culture has contributed vastly in shaping our perception — with numerous popular Bollywood movies romanticising the lived experience — of a city on screen. As it is often said, a picture is worth a thousand words. A few shots of the city, around which the story is based on, has tremendous power to set the tone and reveal implicit yet significant story elements. It can give a peek into the lives of the characters and their lifestyles. In many such movies, the city itself acts as a “silent character” that usually comes alive through the lives of other characters. In these moments, I believe, a city ceases to be just a place — it takes the form of an individual. To the mind, it seems fair as how else can we identify and feel so deeply about something so inanimate.
Akin to humans, a city must have built a personality of its own. Multitude of factors such as architecture, history and culture intertwine to define the underlying attitude of the city. Much like individuals, the modern problems of a city such as pollution and congestion might as well be seen as the negative traits of this “character”. In retrospect, I believe, this attitude would have been fuelled by the unsaid rules and the ways of the city. Similar to having multiple layers in our personality, a city in itself could be a complex evolving “character”.
For all we know, moving to a new city might be an instance of getting firsthand exposure to this “character” and perhaps, it is only when we truly understand all its colours, we become comfortable in calling the city our home!
shristy.singh98@gmail.com
Published - February 02, 2025 02:30 am IST
