Roaming in the perennially under-construction streets of Panbazar the other day, I wondered about the city I call home. According to the epic Mahabharata, Guwahati was the capital of the kings Narakasura and Bhagadatta. There is an inscription on a rock in the Nilachal Hills that dates back to the 5th century AD and is incontrovertible proof that Guwahati has been home to a civilized settlement for at least two millennia. My city and the areas surrounding my state seldom figure in the descriptions and imaginations of the bulk of Indian historians, and yet the region has stood the test of time in its journey through the ages.
It was a unique feeling roaming aimlessly through the historical Panbazar. Most of the purchases are now made online, and it has been ages since I went to an actual market to buy something; the malls nearby are convenient. The Sheikh Brothers, the Mahamaya Hotel, the Friend’s Opticals – they all seemed to have stood still in time. The vintage parts of Guwahati are best explored by foot - the alleys and corridors whispering years of lores and stories to the receptive ears. The major areas that fall under this bracket are―the academic hub of Panbazar, the colonial remnant of Uzanbazar, the roads of Kharghuli, the entire area of Digholipukhuri and some parts of Aambari area.
Of late, Guwahati has undergone huge changes. You can say that Guwahati has gone under the knife for a major cosmetic change. But not every facelift or botox injection or silicon implant can be as perfect as Kim Kardashian’s derriere. While the war memorial on the bank of Digholipukhuri comes close to the youthfulness of Hema Malini in her sixties, the oblong statues which are nothing but caricatures of famous Assamese personalities are like the grossly disfigured lips of Donatella Versace post filler injections. Somewhere down the line, the clash between the historic city that Guwahati was and the sustainable city that Guwahati is trying to be seems to have reached a stage of gross imbalance. The sad part is that no one actually seems to be doing much about it, including yours truly who sits and blasts the municipality for the pathetic roads and the Rain God for the flash floods which drown the thinly layered roads after each spell of rainfall.
Issues like water supply or garbage disposal are discussed under the guise of metaphors of metabolism in bureaucratic meets, but nothing fruitful materializes. Every day on the way to my workplace, I wonder about the shortage of basic services, traffic congestion, pollution and social disparities among others. These problems are only going to amplify in future, given the scale of deforestation and unplanned constructions. With all this talk of converting my laid back city into a ‘smart-city’, it is important to realize that there is a great deal of smartness in being sensitive to the ambient ecosystems.
Nevertheless, today was a happy day for me. Sitting in my car, I was cursing the PWD for the potholes on the road near my home that are soon turning into tributaries which will need to be drained into the Brahmaputra in the very near future. I was also upset about the frequent ‘power-cuts’ for ‘load-shedding’. Just as I reached Ganeshguri, I cast a glance upwards at the angry sun which was threatening to make the rest of the day unbearably hot and humid. Suddenly I caught a glimpse of the huge billboard with a beaming Hima Das in all her glory proudly holding the triclour. And my mood took a dramatic three-sixty degrees turn! Guwahati still had a beating heart, the generation now which will soon take over from the older lot is responsible, street smart and capable. Maybe I should stop being so pessimistic about everything and concentrate on the ways and means to make each day better than the previous one. Maybe this is the spirit which makes my city the place it is now – ever-changing, everlasting….
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