Reading about the land’s people and their life both as narrated in ancient scripts as well as historical records, particularly references to their deeds of superhuman proportions, it generates a sense of heartening, if not an awesome feeling. In total contrast, reading the printed matter in dailies of all hues, that goes for a daily dose of news in our times, while one cannot but feel awful about the abysmal depths in the fall of character, culture, standards of life to which the masses have taken themselves, barring some exceptions (but exceptions are said to prove the rule !). Even as the steadily shrinking number of people in society at large are yearning for return to past ways of life, ripe with time-honoured customs and beliefs that have survived through centuries, the 1983 Kannada language film Nodi Swamy Navirodu Hige directed by Shankar Nag portrays the Western culture in Bengaluru and how the people of Karnataka have morphed their outlook to life in public domain.

Commuting within urban spaces as well as between places separated by long distances at great speed and communicating with anybody anywhere across the globe effortlessly in real time have proved the most important factors of change and exchange grossly reducing to near zero the time-honoured diversity in lifestyle of people in different regions. Thanks to the villages, with poor connectivity among themselves and outside world, the change witnessed in urban spaces is slow to happen.

Whether the villages and the rustic masses are to be or should not be enabled for keeping intact their pristine simplicity, free of glitz and glamour that are an integral part of urban life is an issue that can be highly fascinating to debate. Whatever is happening to change the face of cities, big as well as those tending to expand, including their now-rising skyline, such as in Mysuru, is dubbed as process of development. The only snag in the process is that development of every region is resulting in unstoppable influx of people in search of greener pastures, not to forget that it is happening at the cost of greenery, so essential to support life of people and the speechless species.

Hardly anybody disagrees with the view that the country’s people at large have to chart their path of life in future marked by a) Keeping their environs free from decaying waste, b) Comply with the laws of the land, c) Communicate in a manner not to disturb harmony in society, d) Never straying from discipline at work place, e) Safeguarding the country’s sovereignty in word, deed and thought. It is time and overdue to give up self-betrayal of ourselves.