Third Place Entry
/The City Of Young and Prosperous
As the clock struck twelve midnight to herald the arrival of the new year, I heard loud firecrackers and joyous screams. I put my pen down and left my maths problem undone because no matter what year I was in, the value of x would always be up for question. I turned on my television to watch one of those pre-recorded new year’s eve award functions, while surfing through channels I came across the news of students all over the country protesting over governmental norms and laws. Our neighboring country had begun attacking certain parts of our country, the government had too much on its plate. They announced that for 6 months the eligible candidates could administrate certain cities and be a helping hand to the government, these administrators had to be elected. The youth of the country was actively involved in politics and most of the election candidates were young and ambitious people. My city was one of the few cities having the youth as their servicemen. The elections were in the upcoming week.
I logged into their website avengedcity.com and enrolled myself as a volunteer, no matter who the people of the city choose I would be happy to help. After a week the elections were done and I found myself in the avengedcity office board room, filled with the aroma of coffee and an air of optimism. I saw many people my age, the so-called future of the country were the ones talking about it. We had rigorous debates and discussions with various elected representatives. A plan was laid out. Our primary focus was not only to work for betterment but to also save our city from what was coming. We wanted bigger and better, but what we wanted more was safer, cleaner, and happier because growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell.
We could have a city teeming with sky-scrappers and malls but first, we would want every child in the city to have a roof over their head. All the volunteers and administrators were divided into groups. We were told to work as teams and encourage more volunteers to work for the city. Within the first few days, our primary focus was to sort food and shelter for every person living within the borders of the city, we connected with several NGOs and soon there was not a single person sleeping on the road, several residents of the city came forward to help, after this the momentum was set and what happened next was sort of a snowball effect. Several CCTV cameras were installed and various helpline numbers were allocated for women’s safety, some buses were especially dedicated to women traveling in the late hours of the night, and through the avengedcity.com portal we started collecting donations for various causes. The city had clean roads and cleaner air, and the roads were filled with people taking bicycles and CNG vehicles to work. On the weekends all the members of the city were invited to help clean our heritage sites, neighborhoods, lawns, and public parks and participate in various events at old age homes and orphanages. The air pollution went down drastically, the city was 30000 trees and countless smiles richer than before.
The technology and education sector were buzzing, and the idea of ‘avengedcity’ was merged with the infamous Avengers to inspire teens towards creativity and innovation. A mini version of Jarvis was created to help handicapped people, teens looked at soldiers in the same light as superheroes. Things were going fine, we were happier than ever before. People started to work more and volunteer regularly, with long night shifts, several cups of coffee, and multiple rounds of instant noodles, our health was taking a massive hit. No 22-year-old person you know would be overly cautious about their health, then how could we expect a city run by the same age group to have health as a priority. Physical health and mental health suffered as people juggled between all kinds of activities. Doctors were busier than ever before, and so were their financial advisors.
We sat in our cubicles and wondered if we had created a living, breathing model of the hedonic treadmill. Schools were jampacked but so were pubs and restaurants. As we produced more, we consumed more. This was the umpteenth level of working hard and partying harder.
The 6 month period was about to end, we would all go back to our jobs, figure out how to crack the entrance exams, worry about home loans and credit scores knowing that we made our city better so what if we gained a few pounds and a prescription of painkiller along with 5 mg melatonin doing that. What we had done might not last forever. We did not have a 21st century futuristic city with flying cars, dozens of holograms versions of ourselves, or a space travel agency in front of us but we had people, thousands of people who believed that change is real and change is doable and in the end, it is all figure-out-able. Three weeks later I was back in my room reading Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus, Act III, Scene I - "What is the city but the people?”
Nandinee Singh is currently doing her Bachelors for Christ College. She is from Vadodara.
This piece is part of Nagrikal, a platform for citizens from small cities to share their experiences so that they be channeled into policies.