Fact is essentially different from fiction. Fact is the reality of life and fiction is the dream of life. Fact makes us sad sometimes and fiction gives us pleasure. One should try to know the fact of life in order to judge human life in time perspective. In India, life in a big city is not worth living. Perhaps life in a hell would be better than the life in a big city at present.

India is primarily a land of villages. The real India can be seen in villages and not in cities, much less in big cities. Two or three decades ago, life in a big city like Delhi, Allahabad, Bombay or Calcutta was a happy one and those persons who lived in villages always yearned for city life. But now the conditions of living in cities or big cities have deteriorated so much that one would like to go to any ordinary village if he or she could have some income and the same work. The reason of this deterioration is the rising prices of commodities of daily life. During the last one or two decades the villagers have shifted from their village homes to cities and have settled down there. Consequently, the population of cities has multiplied and they are overcrowded. The problem of housing has become acute in cities.

Life in a big city has some advantages. In a big city, there is every kind of facility for education. Any kind of education, liberal or vocational or technical is within the reach of the persons living in big cities. An ordinary man living in a big city can afford for his children that education which a rich man in a village cannot afford easily. Good and well equipped educational institutions are the permanent assets of big cities. A boy or girl living in a big city has a better general knowledge than a village boy or girl has and is well-informed about the affairs of the world. Thus a child borne bred in the city is more enlightened than a child born and brought up in rural atmosphere.

Life in a big city is free from ailments and diseases because ample medical facilities are available there. Hospitals, well equipped with latest medical instruments are the source of medical relief to every reason living in a big city. In addition to the Government hospitals, we find well qualified and highly competent private medi­cal practitioners in big cities. Such facilities are not available in a village.

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Life in a big city is not dull and drab because there are count­less means of recreation there. The picture halls, theaters, the beautifully illuminated markets, the well furnished and well maintained hotels and restaurants, the charming parks and gardens and the good looking and heart captivating towns of new styled buildings give immense pleasure to everybody living in a big city. From time to time exhibitions conferences, functions, seminars, symposia, sports meet and test matches are held in big cities which lead color and variety to the city life.

Life in a big city is more secured because there are considerable avenues of employment there. In a village the people depend on agriculture for livelihood, but in a big city, one can find employ­ment in factories, mills, private shops, Government offices and educational institutions. If a person has tact and push, a big city is full of employment for him or her.

Life in a big city has many disadvantages too and particularly in the modern India. The remark of the English poet Cowpen, “God made the country and man made the town” is very apt. Life in a big city is artificial and sophisticated because man is divorced from nature. He lives, grows and dies in the lap of artificial agents and machines. He does not come to know how a waterfall dances, how a river glides smoothly, how the cow-hird drive his catties and how the Nature herself nourishes her countless children through various agencies. In a big city, man is cut off nursing, educative and for­mative aspects of Nature.

Life in a big city is exceedingly unhealthy. Here men live like pigeons in holes. The filthy and nasty atmosphere of dirt, smoke and trains makes life poisoned at the root. The smoke emitted by chimneys pollutes the natural purity of environment day and night. Fresh air, golden sun light and clean water are rare in a big city. Here men live on tinned food, refrigerated water and conditioned air with the result that their body and soul become hollow from within and are polluted since their infancy.

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Life in a big city during the recent past has gone from bad to worse. Here, there is tasteless American wheat to eat, dirty smoke to inhale, contaminated water to drink, showy clothes to be worn and fraudulent persons to deal with. Artificiality, sophistication, vulgarity verging on obscenity—these are the hall marks of life in e big city. Rising prices have created many problems for a middle class man in a big city. For him now it is a question of exis­tence. Besides rising prices, everybody in a big city is groaning under the wheat’s of tax and sex. In a big city is majority, of persons have empty pockets and vain show. They, therefore, do not enjoy the real peace of mind. There is too much rush in life here. Form morning till evening a person is required to work like a machine. Owing to this rush of life, heart attacks and nervous exhaustion have become very common in cities.

Despite the material advantages of city life, I would prefer a small, neat and unsophisticated, village to a big city. Man is always happier in the lap of nature than he is under the artificial shadow of modern amenities. Wordsworth was the greatest exponent of a quiet life in the country side, Shelley utter disgust of city life exclaimed, “Hell is a city much like London, populous and a smoky city. ”