Gwalior: Peeping in through the chink

This is another old write-up and dates back to my student days in Gwalior. It was originally supposed to get published in the local TOI supplement, but that never really came through. Nevertheless, it is very close to my heart. My take on life in Gwalior...

Gwalior: Peeping in through the chink

A chink - that is what best describes my perspective of Gwalior, because it hints at the inevitably constrained and constricted glimpse of life in the city that my residence here allows me. I’m a student living alone, with my limited set of concerns and requirements, and, therefore, can never understand the life, euphoric and angst-ridden in turns, that a regular Gwalior-wallah has to pull through, in its entirety. But, even through my relatively short dalliance with Gwalior, I’ve got enough chances to be in a position where I can put forth my unassuming opinion about it.

Gwalior will always come back to me as a city that could tell its cheese apart..! It knows what’s special about it, what makes it count. It has its role in the evolution of India’s collective heritage eloquently documented in the pages of history, its beautiful monuments presenting elegant testimonies to it. But, it also resembles a portrait painted in forlorn hues, showing that it once used to be big, in every sense of the word. The story of Gwalior is in perfect sync with those of many other small towns strewn across the length and breadth of the country. It, like most of them, has seen the time when everything about it was “big deal!”, an era of political, commercial and educational prominence… And it, like most of them, hasn’t been able to catch up, post liberalization, with the glitzy metros, to the point that the mainstream doesn’t care about it anymore. But, the loss of gloss hasn’t quite affected its inherent spirit! The old timers are still very much in love with it, actually. The views of its residents, thus swinging between the two extremes, present a very interesting contrast.

I have a daily brush with this contrast through two of my friends who both have their roots in Gwalior. One of them is a connoisseur of the many delights of the city: he knows it inside out and negotiates his way through the utterly confusing lanes of Lashkar with amazing gumption! He knows where the best eateries are, what market can get you the best deal in cell phones and can’t bear to look at Victoria market in its present state, because to him it appears battered and raped! He, sensing my initial disillusionment with the city, went to great lengths to introduce me to the best that exists here, which included a close encounter with the city’s intelligentsia. His sense of belongingness towards this place is almost infectious! He cannot stand a single word against Gwalior and, for each of its flaws, has ten arguments to prove how living here is any day better than “your Dilli-Noida!!”

On the other hand is my second friend, whose attitude towards Gwalior is amusingly cynical. He stops at nothing short of calling it a “Manhoos shaher” and simply despises living here. He can go on and on about the city’s squalor, lack of development and the crudeness of the locals. His outlook represents the many ways in which Gwalior disappoints its young breed, making them feel that they have lagged much behind their counterparts in the other ‘happening cities’, in more ways than one can comprehend. Traversing through these vastly different views, I’ve, over the years, managed to find my middle ground. I believe that though the city’s infrastructure leaves much to be desired, there’s no dearth of reasons to like it either.

What I remember the best from my first ever visit to Gwalior is ogling at the magnificent ramparts of the Fort – strong and formidable, set against the skyline of the city. My terrace, too, provides me a generous view of it, the temples and palace complexes looking like trinkets strung into a gigantic bracelet. Though countless metaphors have been assigned to it, over the many centuries of its existence, to me it appears like a falcon sitting on guard in its nest, keenly watching its young ones chuckle about, perpetually prepared to defend them against any possible danger. This is one image that’ll always stay with me.

Gwalior is trying to gear up. Every now and then you stumble across something that speaks of the city’s urban aspirations- be it a Crisp Corner Outlet, the arterial road of City Center with all its glass-fronted buildings or that ultimate epitome of upwardly mobile consumerism: the City Mall. Money is flowing into Gwalior- a fact that can be inferred from the high-end retail outlets that just don’t stop springing up and the many luxury cars that one so frequently sees plying on its roads these days. The city’s population is a medley of people who claim that ‘it’s arrived’ and those who just can’t wait to run away! The city will definitely arrive and certain people will always run away, but what’s important is to realize that Gwalior will thrive only when its people accept it the way it is, committing themselves towards its betterment. The key is to develop a penchant for its resplendent past, with our eyes set on a radiant future!.. That’s all the chink allows me to see…