Compare the lifestyle between city and village.

Society is welded with culture and tradition; it would be preposterous to study a society without considering socio cultural aspects. A major city, town, village or any other settlement in the hierarchy alone could not represent these aspects of the society as a whole. Major cities reflect the modern and contemporary lifestyle, while smaller cities or villages portray the traditional and pastoral picture. A study of all the sections of a society needs to be amalgamated, in order to understand its important characteristics.

Delhi has changed drastically in the last decade-from commonwealth games to metro rails, flyovers to zillions of concrete towers, I’ve witnessed my city growing. But, under the shadow of this transformation, I could see people sleeping under the pillars of metros and flyovers; utterly unhygienic, inhumane life of slums; and even the ramshackle condition of the urban village. The two faces of development exhibit the evolution of Delhi as a metropolitan. But in the case of various smaller cities, the transformation has either been at slow pace or is at a state of paucity. In fact, there are cities around the periphery of Delhi, where development hasn’t stepped in yet; farming is still the prime occupation, and streets are not fit enough for any form of vehicular transportation. It clearly states that the byproducts of development could never be the true indicators to sketch the outline of a society.

Moreover, a city like Delhi accommodates people from all over the nation; demography within a zone varies considerably. While in other smaller cities like Jaipur or Amritsar, domination of local community is clearly evident. Delhi being a multicultural city speaks various dialects, whereas, Jaipur or Amritsar, which are primarily dominated by the state culture, speaks mainly the local dialect. Such diversity in culture, within a nation, makes it almost impossible for one or two major cities to talk about the whole society.

Never being alienated from my village background, I could say that I’ve seen both the faces of the coin. Though, lifestyle in both the sections is entirely different, but a society wouldn’t be complete by ignoring anyone of them. Society is like a mosaic, if one wants to clearly understand it, each and every piece of it needs to be assembled to form a true portrait.