The Kind of Life Called 'Urban': Highlights of the Life in Cities

A life characterized by haste, non-stop running, plenty of options and yet a great bit of isolation within people, is how urban life can be described. There is great variety in everything in big cities - classes, religions, political beliefs, working patterns, lifestyles. So much variety, that sometimes it becomes uncomfortable to the mind. But this is the life created by man as he wanted. And hence there are solutions and securities of all kinds for the material life here.

The main force which runs the urban areas is the industries. Industries of different kinds like the consumer goods manufacturers, industrial manufacturers, computers and software etc. and various businesses to complement them like food business, showbiz etc. keep running non-stop and people occupy different slots in these establishments, right from the CEO or owner to a doorkeeper. Then, the various government offices and their employees to administer these. These people constitute the urban areas.

Living in here is a real opportunity in itself. There are so many varieties of people here that an average urban person daily comes across so many different types of people and situations that it makes him skilled in handling people. Daily there are difficulties of different extents and magnitudes coming up and he has to come up with instant solutions. He becomes a smart and shrewd person and thus his confidence level is always high. Also, since urban areas are centers of commercial development, they act both as hubs for exchange in different fields and magnets for people. Renowned people in all fields like science, architecture, music, dance, fine arts, theatre, sports etc. live here and thus budding individuals in these fields get invaluable guidance and training that is not there in rural areas.

The quintessence of urban life is - stress. While there are a variety of options available to choose a lifestyle in urban area, nothing is available for free. EVERYTHING is available here. But there is a cost to be paid for everything. Perhaps, this applies to people in small towns as well, but the bigger the city, the more pronounced is this fact. As the urban life goes to the extreme, life becomes difficult. All people are running everyday trying to reach somewhere, attain something. People have to race against time. There is suffocating competition in everything. People have a number of things on their minds daily, sometimes more than they can handle. They have to worry about other people not taking advantage of them, they have to make savings and make those savings work for them in form of investments, they have to be updated about worldly happenings and be in line with them and they have to make provision for contingencies. All this puts a lot of stress on the minds of people. And the life is such that every individual is to a certain extent isolated from the rest of the people. So where does this stress go? Depending upon the nature and beliefs of the person, different persons find different ways to release this stress. For some, the stress translates into ailments and they have to see shrinks and counselors to get cured. Others find solace in going to the discos, dancing like crazy for hours. Some love to booze. And some misguided souls do drugs.

In smaller cities, especially in towns which are in the process of urbanization, life isn't this difficult but then they have their own problems. Being in urbanization the life of the people here is more inclined towards urban life than rural. But since they are not complete urban places, so many options and opportunities aren't available, thereby leading to frustration. A lot of people in such towns move to bigger cities thereby concentrating the population in urban place. It creates very high shortage of space in big cities. Living in cities like Mumbai is no business for people with claustrophobia.

Some characteristics are inherent in urban life. Variety, huge population and being in a rush are some of them. But others like pollution, isolation between people and falling prey to addictions can certainly be worked upon individually and socially and urban life be made better.