A city, in stars

I live in a cosmic universe. Moon and Sun are very dear to me. Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn are my friends. I am an inhabitant of Earth. It is an amazing planet. It has these huge colonies of humans living together, stratified on the basis of population and urbanisation indices, viz cities, towns, villages. These entities of social cohesion have taken a character of their own, as per their geography, culture and history. 

Every city has a personality. When you are in a city, it is quite similar to a relationship with a person, of sort, in a visceral way.  If you live in a city, there is a bond, a familiarity, a romance, and a time of your life, etched in your heart, in tandem with the memories in the brain. To be philosophical, a city is a character in your story of life. Every city has its idiosyncrasies. The context changes; the habits change; the geography changes; the tribe changes; the taste changes; the language changes; the people change; the time changes. 

In the world of cities, I come from a third-tier city, in the foothills of Vindhya mountains, on the Malwa plateau. Dewas. It is simple. It is scenic. It is serene. It is stagnant. I have been with it since 2008, and the city could not jump on the bandwagon of development and progress. It might be the geography - semi-arid vegetation, depending highly on monsoon, due to absence of any major perennial river, except Kshipra - a seasonal river of mythical importance, or lack of a strong leader, or sentimental significance. The reasons are contentious, and manifold. 

There are a lot of silver linings, too. It is the soybean capital of India. It has the only Bank Note Press in India. It is strategic - present in the abstract closeness of Indore, Bhopal, and Ujjain. It has a National Highway passing through its heartland. Its geography makes it a suitable site to harness wind energy.

It has a population mix of Marathis, migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar, Sindhis, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and native Malwi people. It was a province in the list of Central Provinces, at the time of independence of India. It was under a feudal Maratha king, who broke away, after the decline of Maratha empire, in the nineteenth century. It never stood out of that list, though, meeting a fate similar to that of its parent state - Madhya Pradesh.

I had lived in the city for around 7 years, but never realised and relished it. I was a kid. A corporate work-from-home in the pandemic provided me an opportunity to be with the city, one more time, and I embraced the chance with all my heart. 

I saw it barren in the lockdown. I saw it opening up with the world, from scratch. It is a beautiful place, has friendly people, and a lovely weather. I also saw a void. A void of misgovernance, recklessness, negligence, and zero accountability. 

I left the city, again, after an adult interaction with it for about 18 months, and found an incentive to dig deeper into the role of bureaucracy, government officers and elected representatives in deciding the fate of a city or a district. I am appalled by the pace my city is growing with, now. 

I often hitchhike on the thought train of how an able, aided, and active human can change the fortunes of my city. I understand that a single man stuck in the system is of little help, but I believe and understand that a single man with positive intentions and holistic vision can bring an ocean of small changes. I wonder what I could do for my city if I end up in the upper echelons of the administration. 

I will try to revolutionise my city in a subtle, beautiful way. I realise that no revolution can be brought about without sensitising, mobilising and informing the real stakeholders of the change - the citizens. I do understand that the transformation will take time. Rome was not built in a day.

I will get in touch with all the past leaders, representatives, civil society organisations, and industrialists, to understand their perspective on why the city lags far behind its potential. I will find a way to interact with the citizens of my region, without involving any third person in the process, to get a firsthand and unadulterated feedback on the changes as they are implemented. 

I will interact personally with all the departments under my authority to convince the officers, to the best of my ability, into visualising the importance of their job at hand, as a service provider and a representative of the state. I will acknowledge and appreciate their contributions, with tangible incentives, to bring an impetus to the governance. 

I do not have the discretion over the amount of resources provided to my city in terms of geography and finances, but I will have enormous discretion over how and where the resources can be channelised. 

I will try to utilise my authority to liberalise and encourage public-private partnerships, and investments into the social capital. This would be an inspired move, along the lines of western capitalism, as it could pay profitable interests to the investors and long term dividends to the society, without burdening the taxpayers. 

In order to ensure the sustainability of the changes, my focus of investment would be the human capital. Education is the most potent tool to achieve progress and peace. I will strengthen the state funded institutions of primary schools, anganwadi centers, and universities. I will bring transparency, efficiency and efficacy in the workings of skill centers. I will extensively promote skill training centers, to develop a work force to rake in the benefits of the wave of urbanisation. 

I will cultivate an apolitical, healthy, and proud identity of the region, for the people. It will push them to be sincere about their city; their motherland.

The changes I have suggested thus far are generic, and can be implemented for any city, to gather momentum for its journey ahead on the path of progress. 

But, I have a personal relationship with Dewas. I know its secrets, its habits and its strengths. 

Dewas has a shrine, on a hill, in the heart of it. It is a major tourist attraction, and adds to the lustre of the name Dewas. The city has scenic wind mills around it. It has lakes, ponds, wind-mill farms, ropeway, hills perfect for adventurous sports, and lush greenery around. 

It can be transformed into a spiritual, serene city for worshippers, in the vicinity of Mahakaleshwar and Omkareshwar, and a hipster haven for tourists. 

It has the silence of a big town. It has optimal setting to be the financial IT hub of Central India, along with Indore as the regional IT hub, as the Information Technology industry explodes further. It has the only Bank Note Press of the nation, which is a major brownie point. 

It has the black soil of Malwa plateau, and has suitable conditions for cotton cultivation. It is the Soybean capital of India. It has industries - chemical, oil, heavy iron, textile. It can be a major textile hub of Madhya Pradesh, and eventually, Central India. Industries need suitable environment to prosper, and if provided with environment with an excellent ease of doing business, they can change the fortunes of the city.

I, as an administrator, will push for these changes. I enquired into the process of getting into administrative services. I am in Delhi, preparing for UPSC Civil Services Examination, to become an administrator, with the hope to realise my vision of my city.

I would love to see my city as a peaceful green harbour, of a blend of religion, nature, and industries. I am working towards it.

Ujjawal Dixit

This piece is part of Nagrikal, a platform for citizens from small cities to share their experiences so that they be channeled into policies.