A townscape

A story of a town, unveiling its ugly yet significant aspects, its sad state which becomes a cause of concern for its denizens.

 

                          This sleepy town where I reside, wakes up late,so that if you start early for your day’s work, you find shutters down and few vehicles plying on the road.If  a commoner, you might finally , manage to jump into one of those ever-bustling three-wheelers criss-crossing  the town ,but your ride is sure to be fraught with disappointments.First, it’s because in this concrete jungle, we  have roads appearing  more like unpaved tracks where elephants would’ve been a better option as a means of conveyance.Naturally, you get to experience the craziest of jerks and jolts with your co-passengers.Much to your chagrin, you might sometimes ,surprisingly become part of an adventure race engaged in by these racers between themselves for their sheer delight.Second,your  journey  through this town will be no less spectacular than an African safari,for  you get to encounter the quirkiest of sights and of course, odd smells.You need to hold your breath, literally,since you never know what ominous odours await you.Not to speak of over-filled garbage dumps  and brimful surface drains  out to terrorise your olfactory organ , now you  get to encounter on your  way, truckloads of filth being carried to and fro from these garbage sites at the busiest hours of the day, marring all your good feelings for the rest of the  day.Third, you hardly cover a few distance,when your vehicle halts for yet another half an hour  scouting  for additional passengers  as  you begin to wonder as to where these would be tucked in, as there is no room for more. This will be your plight, usually when you are scurrying and scrambling in a hurry ,leaving you fuming and fretting over the loss of precious time.

                                     Talking of such  grisly encounters, I’m reminded of a particular scene at one of the traffic points of the town.Till a few months back, you could witness an uncomforting  sight,that of a vagabond who had put up his home on a heap of garbage itself near the footpath  and that too, with much pride.Now, this was a man,whom people took to be insane,for now and then, he would give a cynical laugh or sneer at and even shoo away pedestrians and commuters.Despite his abnormal ways,he seemed quite sane in the sense that he appeared to mock at the insane ways of the so-called sound people of this town,debunking  their unmindful ,materialistic, inhuman and reckless attitude towards life.The garbage man,so to give him a name, seemed to regale ,though in an idiosyncratic way, by insinuating"‘Look, what have I made of these garbage that you pile up every day.’But very soon, the people being fed up of his uncouth  ways ,had the entire area cleared up with the man being ousted in consequence.Isn’t it an irony that it took so long for the people to wake up and that too, due to the nuisance created by the garbage man?Thanks to the attention thus created by him towards the dismal site, that there now stands an eaterie, making that corner no longer unappealing.

                                   Coming to the word ‘appeal’ again, I’m afraid you’ll have to strain your eyes  in vain  as you’ll be disappointed to find a lack of good taste in terms of beautification of the town.Arriving at one of its busiest  points,you might  witness  a marbled sculpt of a few unknown freedom fighters, if I am not wrong, looking more like a mockery of sculpture"a  work that bespeaks  volumes of  the lack of artistic taste of the town  planners. A connoisseur of art would surely curse his day after having witnessed it.Again,what you’ll be dying to see, like the townsfolk  longing for it for  a long time, is perhaps  a well-maintained public park, where one can hop into, to refresh oneselves.There are, in fact, one or two public parks, most notorious not only for the presence of tall grasses  and creepy things but also for nefarious activities, where one would rather not put one’s life to risks.Well,to crave for objects d’art is asking for too much. But there is probably no denizen on this earth who would’nt long for a minimum of needs in his place of abode. Besides, this is no ordinary town, being significant in more ways than one and deserving a status almost at par or next to the capital town of the state.  

                              The ever-striding  statue of Mahatma Gandhi  installed at the same point,  can surely boasts of the town’s well clichéd assets"its tea-gardens, renowned institutions, bountiful resources  et al.,but he probably might not have witnessed much development of this town except, of course the increasing number of cars and people on its road.Nevertheless ,it’s reassuring for us denizens that we can still have a view of the sky above coz  sky-rocketting buildings haven’ t yet eclipsed its sky line. We can also boast of the fact that we haven’t yet faced any  of those chronic ills of large, expanding cities"over-crowding, an acute shortage of water or a condition of even purchasing or stealing water, an alarming rate of  noise and air pollution and  a  state of nature stripped of its greenery. But we are getting to see  dismal signs of such an onslaught  soon .Why not, the increasing vehicular traffic on the road is surely a cause of concern. On other fronts, the arrival of a multi-storeyed shopping mall  has ushered  in a steady  wave of urbanisation, which of course comes at a price.The townsfolk  are lately quite excited to see this piece of urban life but such euphoria deserves censure .Being provided with such showstoppers in the name of urban development , is  like being asked to eat cakes if not bread at a time when we have more pressing issues at stake.For  this  age-old town of ours  is in a precarious state, buffeted as it is by  the ever  threatening danger of erosion looming large over its distant horizon and giving sleepless nights to its  denizens. Unless  effective countermeasures  are not taken, the day is not far when this town  shall move towards a slow,silent destruction and  be  totally obliterated  from the earth’s map.

Reviews

[Daniel Hebert]

Very well written, overall. I enjoy the emphasis on the importance of keeping our cities, and our Earth, clean of our waste, lest it destroy us. The only things that I see wrong are very minor grammatical errors, such as putting the apostrophe in the wrong place for "wouldn't" and not ending the quotation having to do with art. Despite these, however, it is still a very good peice, with a highly relevant theme to modern day society.

[Shyamolima Saikia]

Thanks a lot.

[Coyote Poetry]

"We can also boast of the fact that we haven’t yet faced any of those chronic ills of large, expanding cities"over-crowding, an acute shortage of water or a condition of even purchasing or stealing water, an alarming rate of noise and air pollution and a state of nature stripped of its greenery. But we are getting to see dismal signs of such an onslaught soon ."
The above statement is happening to most of the world. We need to protect all water sources. I like the story a lot. Best part to be a reader is to learn about other places and problems. Thank you for the story. The description was very good and create vision of beauty and pain. A outstanding story.
Coyote

[Shyamolima Saikia]

Thanks for taking the pains to read and give an in-depth review.I'm happy that you could relate to the problems dealt here.

[B-poet]

A well written and interesting story. Your writing style has a way of keeping the reader involved in the overall theme for your story. Great job. :)

[Shyamolima Saikia]

Thanks a lot :)