Essay on Urban Life (1226 Words)

How the cities came into existence?

“Full of opportunities” and “different possibilities” are phrases used to define the cities or the urban areas. The urban areas came into existence when the Industrial Revolution which occurred in the 18^th Century.

Till then most of the people relied on the agriculture and cattle breeding to earn their daily bread.

With the industrial revolution a lot of industries emerged, different inventions were made and the work which was earlier done by hands was now replaced by machines.

This gave rise to a lot of opportunities for employment which were quite different from the traditional jobs like pottery and agriculture.

The work now required physical as well as mental ability to complete the jobs. To use the newly invented machines and learn to depend on them for completing of the work was a major revolution in itself.

This also generated a sense of superiority about those who learnt to work with the machines and hence, attracted the villagers and mainly the youngsters to explore this new and somewhat adventurous work (as the labor work and working with the newly invented machines was very much new to the people at that time).

From that period till today’s date, the craze to explore the city life and live the rush is very much prevalent. Also, now there are new machines invented and this requires more of the mental work than the physical work.

The Urban Lifestyle

In urban areas or cities, there is no such like a calm and tension free life. All we see is people in a hurry to reach their offices and doing their work.  The working style in the cities is also very different.

People do not do any physical jobs, they work mostly on their personal computers and have different machines attached to these computers depending upon the field of work.

For example, for science and technology, all the analysis and calculation are done by different instruments. These instruments are attached to the computers which directly shows the result.

This result will be interpreted by the individual having that knowledge.

This type of work is not only seen in the field of science but also in regular day to day activities. For example, there is microwave oven to heat the food before a meal instead of manually heating it.

Then there is the invention of the car for the purpose of travelling. For this purpose, proper roads are built. Big buildings are constructed for the people to live instead of small houses as seen in the villages.

There are no play grounds or big trees seen in the city. All that we see, are big buildings, sky scrapers and concrete jungles.

High class or standard of living is observed where daily life chores are done by using machines.

Good quality transport system, residence, food and clothing is available which itself shows that city people are really living the life of their dreams.

This has also created a sense of isolation as the people are very busy in their jobs and do not get time for their family even if they are staying in the same house.

There is a lot of money earned by the city people, but they do not have time to spend it properly due to lack of personal life.

The other side of the City Life

Every thing or concept has its own advantages and disadvantages. The city has a lot of advantages of living a modern life, accepting the western culture, high standard of living and good quality jobs.

So, are there any disadvantages? As the facts say, yes, definitely there is quite an impressive set of disadvantages of the urban life.

First of all, disadvantages, can be said to be the lack of trees. There is so much increase in population that the trees are sacrificed to make place for the people to live.

The natural resources are now being used up to accommodate the increasing population. But this is more of a technological drawback than the urban drawback.

We say that city people live a modern or westernized life. It is true but it is also true that most of the city people have forgotten their own cultures and traditions and have adapted to the western culture.

This can be termed as a disadvantage as our culture and traditions is what makes us different and unique from the western people and therefore, it should not be forgotten.

Due to the increasing technology and the competition among the companies as well as the different countries there is a lot of burden over the small number of working class people.

We all know thousands of migrants come from rural areas to the cities in search of job opportunities.

This should mean that the burden which is put on the working class will be now divided among the new migrants by giving them the job. But it is not that simple in the city.

Everywhere we go, nowadays, the most important thing is your skill and knowledge regarding the job type. There are rules set up which require a graduation degree and the suitable experience to get a job which the migrant might not have.

Even if he has the graduation degree and proper knowledge, where is he going to get the experience from, when no one is ready to hire a fresh candidate. This is one disadvantage of the city life.

Even if the person is totally eligible, there is so much of competition due to the increasing population that most of the employment opportunities are all used up and there is not proper job left for the migrants.

This is where the decrease in the standard of living begins. In a city, we see big buildings made of glass and besides it, we also see slums made of cement and stones. This is the scenario in most of the urban areas of India.

For example, the major cities of India like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, etc. receive thousands of migrants from all parts of the country in search of job opportunities.

But so many job opportunities are not available here as all the available jobs are occupied and then the cities are also saturated with excess human population.

This is when the migrant population start living in slums and do physical labor in other people’s household to get a job.

Those people who don’t do this job then choose the last option of begging. This is the worst-case scenario of these highly developed cities of our country.

Conclusion

Whatever scenarios discussed above are the harsh reality of today’s urban life.

This is by no chance a good situation as it shows that the citizens are not aware of the requirements of these cities and the people are not knowledgeable enough to get the jobs that are available.

Hence, it can be said that today’s urban society has more disadvantages that the advantages.

It is not like there are no jobs available, there are good jobs available out there but the required skills are not there. With increasing competition and excess availability of the human resources the competition is increasing.

This situation demands that each and every person should adapt to the rapidly developing technology. After all, it all goes by the phrase, “Survival of the Fittest” which was given by Charles Darwin.