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When was the best time to live in 'your city' ?

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For me it was the mid 90s, I was in early teens then (in Dhaka).

If many people answer your question, you might notice a trend that most of them are citing a time that coincides with their youth. The ones who are 14/15 years old today in whichever city, 20 years later they will say the best time was 2022.

Yes nostalgia does play a part. As does perception. For example my perception that Mumbai was best in the 60s is based purely on Bollywood movies, journalistic literature and photo essays from that time as I wasn't even born then.
 
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I've experienced both the city upbringing in the UK and the village one in Pakistan but at the end of the day, everyone's different some people prefer the lights and vibrancy whilst I for some reason have an old 1960s Punjabis Ghost in me and I've been called out for that as well be it from my family members or friends I've certainly got a fragrance of Punjab's soil in me hopefully it sticks with me till the end.

Now my rants over here are some pics of Chenab.
 

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I'm an 80s kid who grew up in a nice Delhi neighborhood and still live there half the year. Used to be pretty good up until the mid 90s, now there's just too much traffic and construction everywhere but it used to good back in the day, this is not just childhood nostalgy, but the place (apart from the lutyen's zone) really has gone to shit. Shame I'm not rich enough to own a place there.. oh well.

A lot of people I know have moved out to the satellite towns of Gurgaon, Faridabad and noida/greater noida, there's some very nice housing developments there though even those are slowly becoming too crowded for my liking. I now live in a quaint little village in Goa and absolutely love it here.
 
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I grew up in a small city, its always been dead.

A little envious of you big city people - always wanted to move to a big city, but never wanted to leave family and friends behind to do so.
 
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Peshawar have always been wonderful pre 2001 before war came next door. Peshawar was amazingly peaceful. Though many elders say Peshawar was a heaven pre 1980. People used to travel easily to kabul and even USSR. College trips used to head to kabul and other Afghanistan cities. It was a true border city with huge diversity and dynamic culture.

Peshawar's old areas look fabulous. If I ever get a chance to visit Pakistan, Lahore and Peshawar will be on top of the list.
 
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Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province. A fourth tier small city with a population of just over 1 million.


Nice. I personally don't like to live in big cities, I prefer smaller cities with less hustle and bustle where there is a more traditional community and neighborhood, is peaceful etc. Unfortunately I live in a big city for job requirement.
 
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Nice. I personally don't like to live in big cities, I prefer smaller cities with less hustle and bustle where there is a more traditional community and neighborhood, is peaceful etc. Unfortunately I live in a big city for job requirement.
For Chinese cities, the difference is not in size, but in positioning.

For an industrial city like Zhuzhou, although it is only a small city with a population of just over one million, its scenery is not much different from that of a large industrial city.

I don't think you like small cities, but cities that develop tourism, agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, etc. For example, Zhangjiajie, Bagua.


Zhangjiajie city (Tourism cities)

IMG_20220914_125136.jpg



Bagua city (Agriculture and animal husbandry cities)

IMG_20220914_125129.jpg
 
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For Chinese cities, the difference is not in size, but in positioning.

For an industrial city like Zhuzhou, although it is only a small city with a population of just over one million, its scenery is not much different from that of a large industrial city.

I don't think you like small cities, but cities that develop tourism, agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, etc. For example, Zhangjiajie, Bagua.


Zhangjiajie city (Tourism cities)

View attachment 878978


Bagua city (Agriculture and animal husbandry cities)

View attachment 878979

I wasn't referring to scenery, tourism etc. I was referring to smaller cities with close knit community, things are not too buys, there is no rat race to earn money like in big cities, you get to meet and spend time with your friends, family and neighbors etc. I don't care if the city is high tech or highly developed or not.
 
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I wasn't referring to scenery, tourism etc. I was referring to smaller cities with close knit community, things are not too buys, there is no rat race to earn money like in big cities, you get to meet and spend time with your friends, family and neighbors etc. I don't care if the city is high tech or highly developed or not.
I also miss the kind of city you said, but that kind of city has only existed in my memory. Now we can hardly find the city you mentioned in China.





You mean something like this, right?
An old-fashioned apartment without an elevator. The narrow roads are crowded. Low class restaurants and shops. But they are full of enthusiastic neighbors.

IMG_20220914_132204.jpg
IMG_20220914_132158.jpg
 
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I also miss the kind of city you said, but that kind of city has only existed in my memory. Now we can hardly find the city you mentioned in China.





You mean something like this, right?
An old-fashioned apartment without an elevator. The narrow roads are crowded. Low class restaurants and shops. But they are full of enthusiastic neighbors.

View attachment 878982View attachment 878983

Yes.

I also miss the kind of city you said, but that kind of city has only existed in my memory. Now we can hardly find the city you mentioned in China.





You mean something like this, right?
An old-fashioned apartment without an elevator. The narrow roads are crowded. Low class restaurants and shops. But they are full of enthusiastic neighbors.

View attachment 878982View attachment 878983

Do you mean that kind of city is no longer there in China? China is big, there should be smaller cities like that.
 
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I now live in a quaint little village in Goa and absolutely love it here.

Lucky you. I would move to Goa in a heartbeat but my wife's job requires her to be in Bangalore 2-3 days a week. On second thoughts, even if I could, I am not so sure I would. Most of my friends and relatives are here now and Goa would be like starting from scratch. I am not too much of a social person but I need my once in a while kind of socialising and I don't make friends easily. So for now being a tourist is good enough.

Philosophically, I have always found myself wondering where I belong and where I should settle down. Living all over the country has left me sort of without roots. I identify with all places and cultures, but feel I belong to none. Whenever I travel to quaint places like Goa, Mysore, Udaipur or Kerala, I feel I should settle there. But then I feel its all an illusion. That I will get bored and I will always be an outsider.
 
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@lastofthepatriots almost everyone who visited bhawalpur liked it, it's like a jewel in the middle of cholistan desert

Someone who visited bhawalpur was very surprised that y'all have McDonald's there lol cause people genuinely thaught it's a very small city, so not much is known about bhawalpur but everyone who visited it seems to like it
 
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Lucky you. I would move to Goa in a heartbeat but my wife's job requires her to be in Bangalore 2-3 days a week. On second thoughts, even if I could, I am not so sure I would. Most of my friends and relatives are here now and Goa would be like starting from scratch. I am not too much of a social person but I need my once in a while kind of socialising and I don't make friends easily. So for now being a tourist is good enough.

Philosophically, I have always found myself wondering where I belong and where I should settle down. Living all over the country has left me sort of without roots. I identify with all places and cultures, but feel I belong to none. Whenever I travel to quaint places like Goa, Mysore, Udaipur or Kerala, I feel I should settle there. But then I feel its all an illusion. That I will get bored and I will always be an outsider.
Fair enough, not easy ki bas samaan batoray and nikal diye kahi aur ke liye, spl if you're married and so on. + People do get attached and used to living in and a certain way, why upset everything ? ..

but aaj ke "work from home" and digital zamaney me there are a lot of possibilities, after the hard lockdown ended, this place was absolutely flooded with 'refugees' from all the metros, young people (dilli, mumbai, cal, pune, b'lore, chennai, etc) .. just chilling on a shack all day laptop and mobile pe and having an amazing time of it.. in some cases (small offices), they've even made it permanent.. no renting big office space in the big cities, let people work from wherever if their job allows for it.. laptop and mobile hai.. aap chaand pe baith ke kaam karo, who cares :D ?

Great point about the outside thing, spl in a region where locals mostly speak a totally different language so if you look different or speak only Hindi/English like I do, you're first identified as an 'outsider'.. there's +vs and -vs to it.
 
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