City Folk

‘adventurer’

noun

a person who enjoys or seeks adventure.

An adventurer is someone who does dangerous stuff, something you or I would be scared of doing.

It could also be an activity which no one else can do or has done before, but the contemporary adventurer can do it.

He/she could be a; mountaineer, diver, para-jumper, spelunker, trekker/hiker, wilderness/jungle specialist, or someone who could kill a snake for breakfast and drink its blood for high tea, like Bear Grylls.

This list is endless.

Something common amongst everything mentioned above is that you won’t find them, doing everything that they do, in or near your neighbourhood.

Not every activity mentioned above can be done within or closer to the place you live in.

The so-called adventure and adventurer would require for you to travel far away to a different city and possibly a different province altogether in search of an exotic place.

Before I go any further let me ask you this; which is the most cliched place associated with ‘adventure’ in India these days?

You guessed it right, it is of course ‘The Bulletisized’ land of ‘Leh- Ladakh’, what else?

A journey to Leh-Ladakh is considered the ultimate adventure, a pilgrimage of a sort, for Bullet (Indian cruise bike) owners.

Leh-Ladakh is the ‘Alamo’ for an adventurer and a thrill seeker in India.

In fact, it’s a dream of every new ‘Bullet’ owner to go on whirlwind adventures to distant places, and by distant places, I actually mean ‘Leh Ladakh’.

Without this, it seems, the adventure sprite in them remains troubled.

However, what if I told you that amongst all this jazz you had missed the most adventurous creature of them all?

What if I told you that this adventurer is closer then you think?

What if I told you that for adventure you don’t need to leave your city for some distant and exotic place?

What if I told you that within your city there is a breed of people, a creature if you might call it, whose life is more adventurous then any of the adventurers mentioned above?

Surprised???

If you live in a big city, it could be in any corner of the Earth; then you will find this adventurous creature right next to you in your very own city.

These creatures are everywhere around you; on buses, metro trains, on the road, in your neighbourhood etc…

I have named these creatures ‘City Folk.’

‘City Folk’ is a contemporary city dweller, they are your everyday big city residents.

It’s me, you and everyone else around us.

Anybody can be a ‘City Folk’, doesn’t matter which age group, nationality, race, religion, caste, or gender one belongs to.

You might have read stories of great adventures, stories about people travelling thousands of kilometres to exotic locations for that ‘kick.’

Well, it’s time that we gave equal importance to the not so adventurous adventurer, ‘the city folk.’

‘City Folk’ is your everyday city resident living through the hustle and bustle of a big city.

Our everyday adventures are no less adventurous and thrilling compared to any conventional adventurer.

We battle through the traffic every day to reach their office, school, college or wherever they have to go.

We wade through endless waves, sometimes tsunami, of people in public transport every day.

We fight for the sacred parking space in sometimes known and sometimes unknown territory.

We negotiate through the thick tree cover and vegetation of prices with the street vendors.

Unlike a ‘Diver’ we are not equipped with a SCUBA. They always fight to keep their heads above the water, in different urban situations, and breathe.

We always fight to survive in the big bad concrete jungle.

If we are not the real adventurer, then no one else is.

So, sit back, look within yourself and bring out the ‘City Folk’ in you.

Embrace the ‘City Folk-ness’ in you with pride.

The adventure is right here…