So, as it is, I am sitting in Kazakhstan right now, in the City of Almaty. Almaty is the largest city of Kazakhstan and till 1997 it also served as the capital of this country. Other details one can always access on the Internet, so let me say what I feel to be in this good city.
Firstly, the silence which strikes to my ears, and which I love. It is so calm, quiet and silent here that your body and mind come at peace just by sitting here. For example, reading a book here, or writing this blog or listening to music is far more enjoyable here than it is back in the crowded cities of my India. Thus I am loving it. Loving to hear the sound of wind blowing outside my window and seeing the trees shake to the tune of the wind, loving to notice that I can hear the sound of my breath, loving to close my eyes and just feel this moment of silence. This is perfect for me. My mind at rest, my body at rest amidst deep silence. Of course, such moments take you to the past time of your life, so you feel nostalgic about the good moments. You also think about the moments which were not so good and then try to think what went wrong. You keep thinking about times of your life, about the experiences you have earned so far. You write your diary, listen to some good song, and then again just sit to enjoy this silence. So, this is me in Almaty.
Second thing which one will easily notice is fewer people around. Coming to cities like Almaty have made me feel that how the explosion of population bomb in our country has marred every development we have made, have spoiled the quality of life which people could have had, have made our cities unbearable and congested. No amount of infrastructure created is being enough to cater to the needs of teeming millions. See the example of Delhi Metro, an icon of urban development, but the million crowd which struggle nay fight to get in and get out at every station tell us that how our gigantic population has negated the pleasure of development. I walk here along the roads and avenues which are almost empty, such empty avenues are a rarity in India. I recall some writer saying in his book about India as where there are always people eating, people walking, people sleeping, people coming, people going and people, people and people all around. Trains are full, streets are full, jobs are full and so on. I donot want to go into statistics but still see this that the population of Kazakhstan is around One and Half Crore and Population of India as It stood in 2011 Census is One Hundred and Twenty One Crore, so there lies an oceanic difference. Likewise population density is about 6 persons per square kilometer in Kazakhstan to that of 382 persons in India. The statistics and figures may go on and on but the simple point is that such exponential growth in our population is the root cause of almost all the problems we face today. Though the growth rate at 17.5% in the last decade has been the lowest, but still we need to seriously do something it. Let’s see how it happens!
Another thing about Kazakhstan is that majority of the people in this country follow Muslim religion. But you don’t feel like being in a Muslim Country. It is altogether a different genre of Islam, an extremely relaxed, tolerant and liberal face of Islam, which is sadly not found in many other Muslim countries. As I see Kazaks have been able to minimize religion in public life, which I believe supports development and good life. Though people say that in the rural areas, religion is still very important part of ones life, but still it is not in any way used to create absurd rules of social and individual control. So the tyranny of religion as I see is absent here, this is another good thing I noticed about Kazak people.
Another thing I learnt today on my visit to the National Museum is that Kazakhstan is a fairly diverse nation. Though the majority is of Kazak people, but there are many other communities like the Russian, Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Turks, Jews, Germans and many others. In the national Museum there is a section showcasing Diasporas in Kazakhstan, where one can see the dresses of different communities found in Kazakhstan. Though Kazakhstan is not that diverse as India, but it is diverse enough. And most important thing to know is that these all communities live peacefully here, there has been no situation of conflicts or riots among people from different communities.
There are many other things which I am experiencing here during my sojourn. All is all; I must say life is good here. I never thought that Almaty would be so developed, so well planned and green city. People seem to be happy here and enjoying life. I wonder when Indian cities would be like this.
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