Suburbs vs the city

 " Clearly then , the city is not a concrete jungle , it is a human zoo ." 

                                                                       Desmond Morris 

Kolkata was born out of a confluence of three villages . Kalighat , Sutanuti , and Gobindpur . This was fortified after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 , and developed into the formidable megapolis that we know today as Calcutta or Kolkata . 

However , what we forget is that several attempts were made to develop Forts and fortifications , both by the Mughals and the East India Company , interspersed with several skirmishes over the years , around the city area . 

There are historical records of attempts at building harbour at Uluberia , Howrah ; A fortified stronghold at the village island of Hijli ( present day IIT Kharagpur ) , and a huge trading outpost (of course , heavily fortified against looters ) at Balasore , Orissa . 

 All this was done , keeping in mind the maritime prowess of the East India Company which was a naval superpower in the 18th century . 

The point here is , the suburban towns , surrounding a city are as important as the city, itself . If not more . 

The surrounding small towns of any big city is an impressive and an important catchment area for service providers , raw materials and other resources . Any travel outside Kolkata will reveal to you , that most of the fish comes from Kolaghat , where the mighty Rupnarayan river , still unsullied and not-yet-poisoned with prodigious city filth and effluents , produces the best , largest and juiciest fish forms . Anyone who has lived in Bengal , will tell you that fish produce , and river commerce is of prime importance . 

Sand for  new constructions comes from the Subarnarekha ( the aptly named "Golden thread " )river  in  the far reaches of East Medinipur . The bricks , likewise , are sourced from brick kilns , elsewhere . The vegetables in the kolkata bazaars , arrive from Salkia , Burdwan , Asansol , and New Town . 

The local trains that enter Kolkata in the wee hours of the morning , and depart till late night are choked with the suburban commuters . They run mall s, factories , railway workshops , foundries , schools , hospitals ,printing presses and homes . Generations of suburban kids from Mecheda , Baghnan , to haldia , will tell you similar stories . Of a father , never seen . That he woke up in the wee hours of the mornings , caught the morning train to work , with his lunch dutifully packed , and returned late in the night ,when kids had gone off to sleep . 

The city , a megalith , should remember that , it was built by generations of blood , sweat , toil and tears from the meek suburban worker , clinging to 10 cms of a wet sweaty steel rod , rattling away to work , in the darkness of the pre dawn , returning in  the smoky chaos of the dusk. 

It is payback time now . Instead of increasing the burden of the metropolis , it is important to decongest it . 

It is time to step back , and move base to the euphemistically named "Tier two " cities , or the towns that come next , or the suburbs . It is time to develop land , build homes , hospitals , schools and playgrounds in salubrious , and breathable , green air of the small towns . They should be seen as life givers to the people ,, not just an endless provider of manpower and fresh produce . 

It is time that we decongest the cities , plant trees , increase green cover , Make spacious gardens , replace concrete jungles with actual green forests , and redistribute our commerce amongst people who actually need it . We need to go easy on our plummeting ground water levels , rising cost of living and skyrocketing pollution . We need to lower our gaze from the sky scrapers , to actually look for stars and moon in the inky black rural sky , with no yellow neon or sodium vapour lamps sullying our sights . 

" Everytime you think of a city , 

 you have to think green , green , green 

Everytime you see aconcrete jungle 

You must find open spaces 

And when you find open spaces , 

make it so people can get to them ."

Eduardo Paes . 

To make the "green lungs " thrive and function , we need to decompress , distribute our wealth generating factories , warehouses , farms , to the suburbs , where it can generate jobs for the people , without the need for pressing migration tot he cities , on a temporary or a permanent basis . 

It is as a poet once said 

" Once we are surrounded by concrete forests , we will start building actual forests . "