Never in the past had the city appeared as beautiful as it
appeared to me that day. Standing out with one of my friends, I began to gaze
its beauty. It was exactly same the way, a bridegroom, forgetting everything
else, gawks at his beautiful bride standing coyly at his courtyard. It seemed
that the city had also, like a bride, unveiled her face, covered all through
the long ritual. It had no qualms standing nude in front of me. I was seduced
by an erotic invitation. My lustful eyes fell on its naked beauty and began to
scroll all around in order to devour its virginity. I was slow in my act,
glancing at and enjoying each and every characteristics of this dormant city. I
wished this would last for ever and was mesmerized by a sense of victory. I had
seen crude and an untouched beauty of a city without any artificial
ornamentation.
It was a beautiful evening in Rourkela. Gentle wind was blowing across the city, which
abounds in green vegetation and trees all around it. The gush of the wind was
causing leaves sway and generate music rhythmically. All the tress planted by
the road-side appeared to be dancing in a perfect harmony. The birds were
chirping with glee. Animals were on their way back to the farm. The shepherd
was effortless and carefree. He was singing melodiously on his way behind a
herd of cattle. The long green pasture and a serpentine flow of a big river had
made a way into the city in a perfectly geometrical design. The city appeared
to be put artistically surrounded by high hills and lush foliage on them. The
sky scattered all over the hills appeared blue and clear. The sun had lately
dropped down from its gigantic lap and lost somewhere far, behind the patchy
hills. The warm breeze of the day had cooled down considerably.
People were coming out of their homes to enjoy
the breezy evening. They were strolling all along the wide and clean road of
the city. The women were draped in their saris. Their long and unbridled hair was
dancing back and forth in the jet of wind. They were running their hands, now
and then, past through lock of hair dangling and dancing on their foreheads. I
was standing in the middle of a big circular green field, where some children
were playing. They were happy and gay; running, jigging and bellowing. Oblivious
of everything else, they were engrossed in their playful activities. The parents
had indulged in gossips. The Sunday evening had given them an occasion to amble
out with their children. They seemed relaxed, happy and cheerful.
“Have we declared a war
on ourselves?” The unpleasant question of my friend standing beside me jerked
me out of the magic charm I had fallen into. He was looking straight in my face
with full knowledge about my sudden lure towards this city, I surmised. I blushed
as though he had caught me red- handed cajoling and persuading my wife. As I turned
my face towards him, I found him chuckling---indifferent to what he had asked.
His scintillating eyes did not bear the brunt of a war-time situation. He was
unruffled and undisturbed. The invisible transient wind was playing with his
brown hair and he seemed to be enjoying the naughty behavior of an unseen
companion. His facial-expression was nowhere near to suggest what he uttered a
while ago. Without feeling any need to answer him, I drew my face back to its
earlier position and tried to concentrate at things which had enthralled me
magically and mysteriously. To my utter surprise, the charm and the beauty of
the place had vanished. They were nowhere in sight. I made an effort to seek
out the dazzling inveiglement I became a lucky prey of, but could not regain
the lost heaven of love and beauty. It was only the disquieting outer layer of
an immaculate beautiful world which my eyes could hold up. I was suddenly out
of a something very sensual pleasure as though I had been ejaculated during a
very brief period of intercourse with nature. I stood satisfied but demanding. The
splendor of my beloved town had sneaked out of my glare, wrapping itself with
its usual nasty cover, as soon as the act of proximity was over.
Jarring noise of the vehicles and their high-pitched honks started
disturbing the serenity of the place. Some people sitting around looked peeved
at the unpleasant buzz of the mobile phone, while others went on talking loudly
over their phones. The filmy ring-tones of mobile phones had added to an
already earsplitting noise. As more and more people started thronging in the
field, some uninvited vendors brought their products right there at the service
of their prospective customers. Soon, there grew some competition among them
and they began to advertise their products vociferously in their highest
possible pitch-cord. They all wanted to capture as many customers as possible
for them. While dealing with and serving to one, they never drew their
attention from other prospective customers. Some were clever and making
children their easy target. Falling prey to their strategy, the children left
playing and became persistent with their demand to have products of their
choice. Parents were silently catering to their demands. Some other children
had also gathered there without accompanying their parents. They were appearing
less-privileged and poor. They had worn shabby and torn clothes and were
looking disoriented, disheveled and unclean. Since they had no money with them,
they were silently following vendors to the places where they would serve some
family. They took to the corner at last when they failed to generate sympathy
in people’s mind. The green field was soon littered with disposable glasses and
carry-bags, which began to loiter around in the swift of wind. The aesthetic
beauty of the place had soon evaporated into the heat of commercialization. My
mind had hardly escaped the agonizing development when an obnoxious black plume
of smoke started ascending and spreading the vast horizon of sky. The rapid
industrialization in and around Rourkela had
made it susceptible to high degree of pollution. Gone were the days when fresh
air circumnavigated breadth and length of this small town and people got
refreshed after every walk they undertook. Now, it was smoke all around the
town they despised and loathed the most. Heavy blanket of smoke soon covered
the sight and the beautiful panoramic view of this town was eclipsed into it.
I had already
experienced something more unsavory and unpleasant in Delhi---------------
over-crowed and filthy streets, dirty markets, unattended, stinky mound of garbage, blocked drains, unplanned
structures and poor sanitation. It is during my stay in Delhi that I saw roads
packed with cars and pavements with vendors. Here vehicles honk loud and emit
smokes. Traffics moves at a snail’s pace and road-rage are common. people have
grown intolerant, unsympathetic and rude. Their behavior is hostile and
inhospitable. They are materialistic and simply inhuman. They care more for
profit than for anything else. Medical stores are full of spurious and expired
drugs. Carcinogenic vegetables and fruits are sold with impunity. People sell
and consume spurious wine. They run rackets of prostitution under the nose of
administration and even take contract for eliminating rivals. All these
activities are carried out just for the sake of profit. Carnal needs of people
have overshadowed their moral righteousness. They
are the perpetrators as well as the victims of misdeed.
They breed and commit one form of crime and fall victims of another form
of
crimes. Chemists sell expired drugs to patients and are bound to
purchase
cancer-producing vegetables and fruits. Shopkeepers earn profits by
selling liquor and see their wives and daughters being molested and
raped by
drunkards. Officials take bribes and feel the pangs of separations from
their
beloved sons and daughters. People pollute the environment and become
sick with
fever and disease. The city has flourished with an ideology of
commercialization, but seem to crumble and perish under its own immoral
excessiveness. Its dwellers are making money and profits at the cost of
something which cannot be compensated for. Are we striving to live or
simply
digging graves for our own burials?
Junk food,
late-night parties, a contagious culture
of wine,drugs and immoral sexual conduct have simply rendered people
disease-stricken. Their physical strength is trimming down. Power of
resistance
is diminishing. They are losing their appetite, charm and beauty. They
easily succumb to bacteria and virus and take long time to recuperate.
Here people
prefer late-marriage and freedom but take drugs and wine to cope up with
psychological loneliness. Things come in pair here and life is strewn
between
contradictory practices. The unhealthy and unethical life-style of
people in
Delhi is eating into their happiness and well-being.
As I have been
living in Delhi for a quite long time now, any further influx into the city
seems illogical, immoral, dangerous and even fatal. However, I stand helpless
and see people in large number pouring in everyday. They will settle here and
treat this city as their mistress. They will attempt to get much and more out
of this city but add nothing to its health and beauty. This has been in
practice for a long time and just like a prostitute its beauty is dwindling with
the passage of time. I am not against migration towards big cities. What I am
against is uncivilized behavior of people and their indifference towards
nature and the city they live in. In the name of commercialization and
development, human greed is playing a game full of revenge and vengeance and
at stakes are the nature and its pristine beauty,which would boomerang on our
survival. “Yes, we have declared a lethal war on ourselves,” I mouthed a
rejoinder inadvertently.
As
a very small town as compared to Delhi,
Rourkela still promises healthy and peaceful life with lesser degree of
environmental pollution and human wickedness. However, the heat of
commercialization and lust for materialism seem to silently seeping into
the
town and settle there undesirably. I have just seen the impact, though
of
moderate quantum, and it should serve as a warning sign of a deadly
future. If
even the small towns get contaminated, people would have no other places
to
rusticate and rescind.
VASHISTHA RAY.
