The Completely Organized City

It is possible that one might fail to discern the extreme levels of organization in what seems to be a chaotic shantytown.While its maze of narrow alleys may lead to nowhere, it would be foolhardy to think that the city itself lacks a sense of purpose.While it is true that one might be exasperated by the moist petticoat flying into your face as the wind blows into clotheslines hanging uncomfortably low
,it is quite possible that the petticoat belongs to a matron who runs a drug cartel through her kitchen.You might pity the man who ekes out a living selling Pan and cigarettes from the coop into which he just about fits,but be almost completely assured that he is an intermediary facilitating the exchange of crores of rupees.

The  inn-keeper is obviously in league with the Boss who he regularly hosts without a fee.Every other senile and emaciated beggar could be a spy.And of course,every well-known crook is a policeman in disguise. The juvenile delinquents fool around in the day as a well-deserved respite from the back-breaking labour of the night:heists,kidnappings,gang-wars and the planning that goes into heists,kidnappings,gang-wars and the like.

At restaurants,the most peaceful dinner meetings break into a brawl.Tables,chairs and cutlery get smashed.But the unperturbed owner calmly collects his tribute from the Boss who merely set it up as a diversion.Shopkeepers and passer-bys are fairly nonchalant about the hundred odd chase scenes they might witness in  a day and needless to say,they never assist  the one chasing or the pursued for they never can be sure if they are on the side of the pursuing or the pursued.It is,after all,  never clear when the pursued will be chasing and vice versa.

In this way,the entire city is implicated in organized crime.Nobody here is completely innocent.The Boss ,like an invisible CEO runs this factory of crime more smoothly than any multi-national corporation can.No wonder that the minister who comes visiting annually never fulfills his promise of connecting this city with the other larger city with a proper asphalt road.That larger city--the one with tall buildings occupied with men with crinkle-less suits and spotless criminal records--needs to be protected from the contagious crime that infects the Completely Organized City.Last thing you want is to build a road connecting the two cities and let organized crime trickle like water into the larger city.Also,the minister is secretly proud of the shantytown and of just the way it is.

Cities and Gods

Even today,every second horde of migrants heading for Ramashivabrahmapatnam often mistake themselves to be on a pilgrimage and why not?The shops are named after gods,houses after deities,slums after their patron saints and cricket stadiums after ancient sages.The prosperity of the city is often attributed to the fact that it contains the holy triumvirate in its name.And prosperity is flocking to our glittering malls,many of which resemble the Pantheon, containing rows of shops selling  bags,shoes,clothes,jewellery,cars and mobile phones among other things.All the showrooms sparkle more than our temples and being named after Gods, deserve to be housed in a building Pantheon-like.

As you settle into the city and veer towards dismissing the city's holiness as delusion, a time will come when at a car mechanic's garage,you might wonder why some evenings, the heady stench of grease is tempered by the perfume of incense sticks or why the busy traffic is sometimes blessed by the prayer songs at the inauguration of a roadside tea stall.It is also possible that you might have been befuddled as to why,on special days, the waiter at the 3.85 star hotel offers you a piece of sweetmeat as ambrosia complimentary to your Intergalactical cuisine.

It is merely to prove you a point that God manifests itself not just through the machinations of nomenclature but through real,tangible,eat-able,smell-able objects.It is only the city that can make God as real as the sweaty railing in the bus you clutch on your way back home from work.

In the horizon, one of the hills bounding the city has the giant statue of the mighty lord squatting with a snake around its shoulder --looming large over the sprawling city,paternally dwarfing what we thought were the largest hoardings possible ---advertising coaching classes for entrance examinations,insurance policies and English speaking classes --almost as if embracing them within the omniscient gaze of the lord.


And that is why, if you ever despair over a lost job or a miscarriage or bankruptcy or any other time of misery in the divinely calculated cycle of life,keep faith that you,who like the the city,must be named after Rama or Brahma or Shiva-- are no Tom,Dick and Harry for this is the city of the gods,by the gods and for the gods and good times are only just one more U-turn ahead.