Monday Musings 197 - The cities we live in and the cities that live in us

Monday Musings 197 - The cities we live in and the cities that live in us

On my second trip to the ancient city of Benaras, as is my wont, I was wondering around in its traditional parts - trying to soak in its sights, sounds and smells. (I had blogged about my first visit to the city a few years back). This time I had two of my local colleagues who had both returned back to the city, helplessly - after having migrated away for greener pastures, but had returned like the cat who keeps coming back to your house even when you try to leave her way away, hopelessly enamored by its love for the household.

While moving around the old city and enjoying its own version of night life - from the thandai, tea, hot fragrant milk and wrapping it up with the delicious paan, I was given a short tutorial on why it is difficult to take a person out of Banaras but quite impossible to take Banaras out of the person. Only to prove the point I was given a wonderful book called "Kashi ka Assi" written by Dr Kashi Nath Singh who apart from other distinctions taught Hindi literature in the Banaras Hindu University. 'Assi' in the title refers to the 'assi-ghat' area of the southern tip of the city, right on the banks of river Ganges and is the oldest part of the city - one may easily call it the 'true - original - Banaras'. This book, without going into details is a wonderful account of the soul of Banaras, with its eccentricities, lingo, and people, peppered with colorful expletive ridden language of this part of the town. As the opening paragraph warns - ".....this book is not for children, nor for the aged - it is for adults only.....”. This warning is treated with warm welcome by the original Banarasis for whom such colorful language is a way of life - a restraint in the language to make it more civilized is akin to sacrilege, an attempt to play with the identity of the city. 

We know by now that cities have their own character and many have fallen hopelessly in love them. In the corporate world one of the big reason people do not move bases is the love for their city. Many have sacrificed the lure of opportunities at the altar of love for their hometown. Many of batch mates from college were resolute in their decision not to move out of the place of their birth. I would usually respond this with polite sarcasm but I guess I understand the phenomena a little better now. 

Many books and movies have managed to capture the spirit of the city in its truest form. The city is the character as much as the people who form the narrative. In recent times, Calcutta was a character in the movie 'Kahaani', Delhi was a character in 'Delhi-6', as much was Mumbai in the movie 'Dhobi ghat' and amongst books, 'Maximum city' by Suketu Mehta described Bombay. I am not sure if we have gone beyond Mumbai and Delhi - even using Delhi  as a backdrop is only a recent phenomena. However there are at least a dozen or more Indian cities who have a distinct flavor of its own and which are stories ripe enough to be told. I am sure there would be books which exist but I wish they were either written more or popularized more. I would never have enjoyed Banaras as much as I have after having read 'Kashi ka Assi'. 

How titillating it would be for the soul if someone wrote a full blown book about the eccentricities of Lucknow or the finesse of Allahabad or the humor of Hyderabad, the preoccupation of intellect of Chennai or the love for argument of Kolkata/Kerala or the love for analysis of Ahmadabad (or Surat or Rajkot) or the finesse of Bangalore or the love for nothingness of Cuttack or the love for political and social discourse of Bihar - so on and so forth. It will make a great reading and for those who cannot or have not travelled, it will be a good window into a people who are so near and yet so far. 

Zauq, a great poet and a man in love with his dilli (Delhi), shunned the courts of Deccan where there was a greater appreciation of poetry and perhaps more profitable to be in, by saying -  

In dinon garche dakkan me hai badi qadr-e-sukhan
Kaun jaye 'zauk' par dilli ki galiyan chhod kar 

(There is great appreciation for the art of expression in Deccan these days but who shall leave the streets of Delhi!)

We must continue to live in our cities - but at least the cities must continue to live in us. 

Guru