Saturday 25 April 2020

DREAM URBAN LIFE - Any takers anymore?

What fun is living in a metropolitan city if there are no movies, clubs, restaurants, parties, music festivals and lit-fests? Over time cities have become centres of business, culture, art and intellectual discourse. The rising density due to migration to urban areas was fuelled by a desire to be a part of it all. Not long ago the same cities had been killing fields of infectious diseases and the raging Corona has established it once again.

As those services in the cities, which make them cities in the first place, shut down or tone down, there will be a massive job-loss. All the restaurants, multiplexes, theatres, malls, retail, exhibition and marriage halls, catering services and consequently hotels, transport, taxis, buses and metros bring down scales and frequencies of services they will necessarily shed workers. Who will, then, pay high rentals of city apartments? So, whether those rendered jobless will find gainful employment or not is a big question, we can be sure that they can no longer afford expensive city living.

So, as people migrate away from big cities will big business follow them? We don’t know since it was always the other way round. Maybe big business will not exist after all. In any case as many establishments and people working for them have found that work from home works equally well, why live in unaffordable housing as the home can now be anywhere.

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