THE TOWN THAT WE LEFT BEHIND!

Most of us have watched Swades and resonated with Shahrukh’s journey from NASA-to-Charanpur-to-NASA and back to Charanpur. During his stay at his homeland Charanpur, he comes across everyday problems faced by fellow residents and grieves over them. He takes initiatives to improve their living conditions and works hard for the rest of his stay. Sooner or later, the time comes when he has to go back to being a NASA scientist. He goes back but the feeling of nostalgia and a sense of responsibility towards his homeland bring him back to his roots. Now we know it’s a Bollywood movie where everyone’s mind is excessively clouded by emotions and decisions are seldom practical. But is it really that impractical a decision? Does leaving a job at NASA or any other prestigious job for that matter to do something for the homeland make any sense? Why does a city/district/village where you are born hold any importance in your life?

In India, migration due to the imbalance of opportunities is a common phenomenon. People move out looking for better education and enhanced incomes. They slowly start to adopt the lifestyle they see around them. In unseen ways, they start helping out their new home and its inhabitants. They provide employment by hiring maids, drivers, etc and increase overall demand for services and commodities. Eventually, they start contributing to the economy of the new place. Obviously, this is at the cost of the increased burden on natural resources but around the world, across all times, migration has always benefitted the recipient city/country.

We have been used to thinking about migration only from the perspective of the recipient city/state/country. There is very less talk of the home city that is left behind when people move out. The not-so-developed, opportunities-deprived place starts losing young people who would have become local shopkeeper or factory owner or teacher or accountant, etc. When a kid leaves her home city for further studies, she holds a belief that she cannot stay away from home for long and will eventually come back. Many of us can relate to that kid. But we all know how it works in reality. It’s very hard to turn your back on a place which has a sea of lucrative opportunities and go back to a place where you need to create opportunities for yourself and for others.

It looks like a vicious cycle to me. There is a town which can be called underdeveloped according to some standards. Now when people get to know about better education/jobs offered by cities in the vicinity, they do two things. The ones who can afford are taken by the city while the ones who cannot, are compelled to make peace with whatever is the status quo. The people who leave get a chance to shine, to develop certain skills, to meet people who can put them in an identity crisis and make them push their limits. On one side, these people with all their learning stay where their learning keeps regenerating. On the other side, their hometown continues to stay where it was. The wait for slow changes which arrives from the government’s side goes on and a greater number of people get inclination to leave. And then we say, my hometown has not developed with time. We need to sit down and figure out what role are we supposed to play in its development.

I have lived in four different cities. My studies and job compelled me to leave my home and declare other places as homes. Undoubtedly, I got a better education, met smarter students, cultivated newer interests and hobbies. The nostalgia that was all-pervasive in the beginning started to diminish. The new homes gave me enough to hold onto. I do visit my city because my parents live there and get excited when I hear about it in the news or if someone asks about it. But that is all I do.

This is the story of our lives. And this definitely does not resonate with ShahRukh’s story in Swadesh.

We have become so busy in earning money and spending money that we have forgotten everything else. Some will say that the development of a city is not our responsibility. Instead, it is governments. They may be right to an extent but even a minuscule of effort from our side can be counted. Maybe we can just start by thinking and discussing about it. A thought becomes a trail to action. Some will say why we need to restrict ourselves to a city. Helping the country develop is all that should matter. But why should fruits of development only reach a few? Why should people fail to improve their lives just because their town lacks enough opportunities? Many such questions need our thought.

Related posts:

Come and play our free online Horse Games. Take care of your horses by dressing, feeding, horseshoeing, and petting them. Next to riding a horse, you can also ride a pony. Take your horse and pony to…

I love what I do. Having the privilege of helping dogs understand their place in the world and, just as importantly, helping their humans be the best stewards for their dogs they can be is something…

We managed to sneak in one last beach run, and seized the one rare sunny morning and decided to run up to Godrevy Point and a little further towards Navax Point. On route, we were treated to a vast…