Whenever we think about life in a metro or living in an urban area, we realise that we have everything. All that comfort, luxuries that contribute to a healthful lifestyle; opportunities, infrastructure, restaurants, big hotels, malls, hospitals and life represents progress. However, every coin has two sides, the opposite side of the concrete jungle is less than desirable. We have advanced cars but a lot of traffic and pollution; huge buildings but less open space, money and facilities but never satisfying desires, education and opportunities and more stress and depression in life. We have our McDonalds and Pizza Hut with them we have obesity, diabetes, cholesterol issues too. People work over 10 hours a day and have no time for themselves or their family. These problems are a result of an occupational hazard in cities as people are stuck in a never-ending rat-race.

In the advanced setup of an urban area, life is being run by technology, and we are all slaves to it. Our WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype has consumed most of our time and thoughts, and while we are virtually closer, we are physically farther than ever before. People are victims of impatience and lack of tolerance, and so confront emotional issues. A proper healthy diet and lack of exercise are standard characteristics of urban lifestyle. Life in a metro offers economic efficiency and a better lifestyle, but what is wealth without health?

The glamour, neon-lit nights, glitz of urban life appeals to us no doubt, but if we want the pleasure, we must take it with the pain. Everyone from a school going child to a worker to businessman is under performance pressure. We have created it for others and ourselves too. Our desires are bringing heftier bills, costs and expenses that sometimes leave us with stress. These stresses lead to diseases, and we look for gym, spas, health courses, yoga classes, and we burn more cash for the illnesses that we created for ourselves. There is less green cover in urban life and how much time do we spend with the left nature, the one we have? We have also developed a culture of isolation. We spend much time on television and on laptops. We keep ourselves distant from people around us because we love spending time with these electronics than we do with people. We isolate ourselves.

Every afternoon, evening and night, we take a fresh breeze of pollution because there is not much fresh air left. What do come comes in the morning and our late-night work, associations and morning affairs do not give us time to enjoy that either. There was a time in the 1990s and early 2000 when kids could move about one ground in an urban city and play cricket, badminton, or anything and now we don’t have space, and when they play this in colony parks, the older people send them away. There was a time when a Rs 2 Kismi bar appeared to be a delight and now the time has changed, areas are more urbanised than ever, and a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk does not satisfy an appetite. Even in an urban setting, there was a time when few had TV and people used to collect at this person’s place. Now since everyone has everything, nobody needs humans anymore.

Life in an urban city is materially incomparable; it is just great. We are part of a privileged generation which gets to live in this setting. However, we must learn the values of humans, our environment, and we must make the other side of this coin better because we are responsible for giving a beautiful urban life for generations to come.