Urbanisation

Does Urbanisation really help? And what is urbanisation? More often people (including myself) seem to attribute urbanisation with "modernisation". A city is deemed fit to be called developed if it has posh hotels, all steel and concrete buildings - preferrably high-rise ones, glitzy malls, lot of English speaking around, less of saress and chudis and more of jeans, t-shirts and skirts, san the flowers, bindis and bangles, more of coffees rather than kaapis... but is this development?

Okay, let me think... urbanisation or development would probably mean better roads, better transport, better access to heathcare, better sanitation and better availability of basic goods and services. But why is that such urbanisation always comes with a tinge (maybe a little more than a tinge) of moderness? I don't say being modern is wrong but our perception of moderness seems to dwell in the west. Anything western is modern! For heaven's sake NO! Eventually we tend to lose out on our very own, special, unique traditions and practices which even the westerners awe and at times emulate.

Yesterday, as I was returning home, I passed by a quiet alley with lots of trees, vast open lands. I saw people in most houses place a cot in the open area adjacent to their houses, with the FM radio mellowing some songs and the members lazily lying on the cots gazing the sky with little chit-chats. With the IT revolution catching up in the area, wonder if the trees, vast land and probably even the house would cease to exist!

I don't know if my thoughts have become like an old timer but I strongly feel we are losing out on something BIG in the name of urbanisation (read IT revolution!). Is there a way out?