Life in a big city is an interminable war in
different battlefields. A neighbor’s clarion call that ‘sugar has arrived at
the ration shop” is a signal to buckle up the straps for a fight. Foregoing his
breakfast or dinner or tea, cutting short his meeting with a friend, he
scampers to the ration shop in pursuit of the sweet crystals. Lo, an array of
men confronts him at the ration shop. Here he fights heroically against
fatigue, thirst, queue jumpers, dwindling stocks and the dishonest shopkeeper.
After this heroic fight, he may get the booty; in case he does not get, he is
scolded by the ‘commander’ at home.
The city-dweller’s ordeal by bus is another
unwritten epic. Every morning he has to take part in a hundred meters sprint to
the bus. He may have to elbow out pick-pockets. Ignore frail kids, push ladies
and argue with the conductor. The veritable hell moving on wheels may give him
jerks and jolts causing cramps in his limbs.
Train journey needs advanced planning He must fight
for getting his seat booked even two months before the actual battle. While
waiting in a queue, he fined the privileged ones entering from the backdoor and
getting their tickets. The booking clerk grins before he says that all the
seats are booked; money change hand and there is smile on the face of the
booking clerk. Sometimes there is a gentle pat on the shoulder and as you look,
you find a burly man offering you a ticket at a premium of fifty rupees.
The city dweller’s heroics at the time of admission
of his children in schools and colleges is another chapter. The queues for the
registration forms, the interview of the parents. The snobbish behavior of the
school teachers clerks and peons, the demand for donations for the school
auditorium and many more are the buries to be crossed. If the child is
admitted, a heavy demand for money begins -- money for the school uniform money
for the fete, money for the founder’s day, money for decorating the class rooms
and for what no. If the charges swell up a little more, it can be an effective
step in restricting large families.
The campaigns at the milk booths, at dead public
telephones and in the corridors of bureaucrats are not less significant. He has
to defend himself against the speeding trucks, which may know him down, against
the innocent looking rogues who may stab him for a five-rupee note and against
the wily hawkers who may cheat him of a heavy anoint with their sweet talks.
The traffic jams. The crowded shops, the Romney-spinning rich and the specter
of price rise leave the men in a state of awe and confusion. One murmurs, in a
fit of desperation. “Devil made the city and God made the town”!