Hey, I'm Bangalore, and you?

We walk around them, meet people in them, crib and complain about them and love and hate them, but do we ever identify ourselves with them? The cities we live in often represent the people we are and the lives we lead. Social, outgoing, busy and noisy - Mumbai. Beautiful, fresh, stressed and laid-back - Bangalore. Busy, loud, showy and maddening - Delhi. The same descriptions can easily be used to describe an individual as well. But does that mean that we can define people by the city they live in or grew up in or define the city by the people who live or grew up in them.

Accept it or not, the cities that we live in are a major factor in determining the person we become while we live in it. Many of us think that we have beaten our city to it and chosen to live there because we know exactly who it is and know that we resemble it anyway, but we forget that the city changes with every second, sometimes a little bit and sometimes so much that you can hardly even recognize it, and then, the joke is on us. Crazy traffic everyday makes us angry and frustrated and makes us curse like we never thought we could. Months of constant rainy days make us lazy and hungry. We may fight it and maintain a constant struggle to preserve our innate nature but does it really work?

The schedule of our lives start revolving around the months that the weather is pleasant in or the hours that you can avoid peak hour traffic and power cuts. Dinner shifts to an earlier or later time depending upon the time that you can catch the least crowded bus that allows you to grab a seat and curfew shifts to the time that the last bus leaves the bus station.

Unfortunately, we are often so busy being in the thick of things and hustling around to fit into the city that we live in, that we forget to value it and everything it gives us. We crib and complain about hanging onto the last step of the bus (to those who have read my previous posts-guilty!), getting splashed by spoilt brats zipping through the city in their shiny new BMWs and about the never-ending heat and pollution, but do we ever turn to look at what the city is giving us? We don't even think twice about dumping chocolate wrappers and cigarette butts onto the pavement and leaving the lights on all day, but ofcourse every single moment we think about the bad odour coming from the side of the pavement or the smoke coming from the drain where leaves lay burning, and ensure that the thought does not leave us without it being garnished with a few curses.

As individuals we are always taught to take utmost care of ourselves and the people we love and care about. Why then, can we not even spare a moment to consider taking care of the very city we live in? The one that transforms us, teaches us so much and allows us to enter like a 'Bhopal' and leave like a 'Bangalore'.