Rethinking development

Which place is more developed, Delhi, the national capital of India, or Sundernagar, a tiny town in Himachal, unheard of except in some movies?

Delhi has a population of 2 crores, Sundernagar is inhabited by 20,000 people so Delhi is clearly preferred 1000 times. We all shift to big cities and bigger mega-cities to fulfill the big dream of an enhanced quality of life.

And here's a comparison, from examples of my (and hopefully your daily life). Hopefully, this status will result in a mass exodus of people from Delhi to Sundernagar. (Just kidding)

1. Whenever we've searched for a place to rent in Delhi, the biggest talking point has been 'the balcony'.

A private space, preferably surrounded by greens and peace, a place from where you can look over the hustle and bustle of the city into the elusive horizon.

Most houses don't have balconies, the ones which have balconies have useless balconies and useful balconies are used to dry clothes.

Here, right beside my house is a verandah, which is 20X the size, right beside the verandah is a jungle which is 200X the size of the verandah and the jungle is flanked by mountains which are 2000X the size. (How big is the mountain vs. the balcony? This serves as a useful question for standard 5 maths).

2. Air pollution in Delhi is hazardous and people are advised to keep tiny 'spider plants' in their houses. Spider plants can do the job of 8 air purifiers the say and I have already ordered 2.

You don't need to buy a spider plant here. One deodhar tree with a height of 40-60 meters would make for at least 1000 air purifiers. As I said, there's not one stunted bonsai deodhar tree in sundernagar. There are jungles worth of trees.

3. Surely the education facilities in Delhi are better. Or are they?

Well, people here in Sundernagar respect nature, respect each other and do not kill each other over traffic fouls.

Kids here play in the open (because they can) and do not need seminars on communication skills, leadership and debate (because you learn them the best as you play games or engage with nature).

Kids here also don't have excursion trips to 'natural surroundings' because they are IN a natural surrounding.

Of course, they'll speak broken English with a Kangana Ranaut accent, but they turn out to be kinder, wiser and more resilient (qualities which are priced higher than accent and vocabulary).

4. Health?

People here breath a 100X better air, eat organic by default (they have no choice) and walk more (Because again, they have no choice. Many places are accessible only by foot).

Maybe their life expectancy will be two years shorter (because they don't have an emergency heart center nearby), but it will be far healthier, peaceful and happier.

5. Fun? Trust me, the weekend movie we go to and the weekly trip to a fancy restaurant is not because we have immense fun in doing that but because we want an escape from the boredom that city is.

We NEED the escape because cities are NOT natural. For cities, humans are foreign objects. Either the foreign body will be ejected, or it will transmute itself into a sickly, near dead being.

As I said, we wait for 6 days, so that we can finally get an out on the 7th. And then we wonder why we are stressed. We are sickly, near dead beings.

6. Opportunities? Opportunities to what? To excel in a career? To what end? Personal growth? By sacrificing what? Your health, humanity, and peace of mind?

We thought we had the answers. It's time to rethink them.