YES, there does exist such a species. Amazing, is it not, given the fact that this place is not exactly …ummm, how to put it…a five star place. Or indeed, a showpiece of any kind. With its perennially overflowing dustbins, routinely flooded neighbourhoods, narrow and potholed roads, and the musty smell of decay that envelopes the place during the rainy season, it’s a wonder indeed that any sane person can be so much in love with this place that is sometimes described, unkindly, as a festering sore.

The surprising thing is that these militant Guwahati lovers are people who are urbane, sophisticated and well travelled. It would perhaps not raise too many eyebrows if migrants from the villages of these valleys felt that Guwahati was the ultimate. And indeed it is true that the bright lights of G S Road, the escalators of the malls, and the multi storied buildings bordering the roads do cause yokels to be overwhelmed with admiration.

But, it is not these people that we are talking about here. The rabid Guwahati lovers constitute, in fact, those who have seen the world. Indeed, those who have not travelled much beyond this region are the ones who are enamoured of the big cities, the metros of the country, and of course good old Vilayet, and “Amrika”. For those who have not seen much of the world, living in these other places is still the ultimate dream, the achievement of a huge life ambition.

But rabid Guwahati lovers have usually made a conscious decision to stay rooted to this place. Of course, this does not mean that they do not travel out. They do, very frequently, on work or on holidays to metros around the country, and abroad. But they are so enamoured of this place that they confess to feeling homesick for this city of ours after a maximum of one week out of it.

There is this business man, for instance, who is hosted twice a month, routinely, at the country’s poshest five star hotels, by the organisations he consults for. A true blue Guwahatian, he is always on the lookout for an earlier flight to take home as soon as his work is done in those places. Why? Because he misses Guwahati, and all it stands for.

And then there is this IT guy, highly qualified and hugely successful, who chucked up his fancy job abroad in order to settle down with his family here. He still consults abroad, but he is also busy with several NGOs in this region, in areas very different from his professional one. Of course Guwahati, with its filth and corruption, exasperates him. But the huge pluses that this place has to offer would not make him dream of going away.

Joining this gang is an attractive lady who is somebody important in Insurance. Owner of a beautiful home and having a fine lifestyle here, she would not change her place of residence for anything in the world. Indeed, she is so much in love with this place that she will not hear a word against it, even if the jibes against Guwahati are reasonable and justified. She will almost yell down a person if he says anything about the filth of the place, though of course, being a widely travelled lady, she knows all about the reality. Her relationship with this city is that of a lover’s: she is passionate about Guwahati, warts and all.

And then there is this wife of a highly placed central Government employee. Having lived in many of the poshest areas of the country’s metros where her husband was posted, she has had a taste and more of fine living. Still, she was delighted when they were posted to Shillong. Not because she loved Meghalaya, but because she was smitten with Guwahati. She made her home in this city, while her husband came down every weekend from Shillong. And now that he is posted to Mumbai again, she has decided that she cannot tear herself away from the joys of this place. She has remained here, while her husband has moved to the Financial Capital of the country. “I’ve travelled all over the world, lived in so many places. But do you know, nothing compares to life in our city. I’m not going to move to the anonymity of a metro city again after three years of this warm and friendly place.”

Guwahati is full of stories of this kind. After retirement, people routinely choose to return, rather than staying on in the huge cities here or abroad where they had been employed. Besides, many people who work abroad invest in a flat here. They fly down here whenever they can, in order to enjoy the life of Guwahati. And even highly qualified young people are beginning to choose this city over metros to start their work. For example, a young Chartered Accountant, disdaining offers of work from the metros, has taken up work at a corporate office here. He gets the same salary he would have if he was working in the firm’s Mumbai or Kolkata office. But his salary stretches so much further here that he now has loads of disposable income to do what he wants.

For decades now, people from “outside” have routinely settled down here. There are any number of middle class North or West or South Indians, who came to work but stayed on, building homes here, and settling down happily in this place they’ve come to call “home”. So what is it about this place that makes all these people behave as they do, flying in the face of a logic that says ours is an unsightly and malodorous place?

Firstly, of course, there is the size of the place. Guwahati’s smaller size means that people do not have to bear the brunt of long commutes every day. Not so big as to make its inhabitants feel anonymous, the city has a warmth that makes each individual feel he counts for something. And, yet, it is big enough to allow people the privacy they want. There is enough heterogeneity in its population to ensure that one gets the group of friends and kindred souls one needs to nourish one’s brain. Indeed, the cosmopolitanism and general air of tolerance of this place is one of its greatest charms. Besides, there are all sorts of events happening here, enough to engage the interests of all kinds of people, from bibliophiles to music lovers, from corporate types to medical men. It is a vibrant city, in a way that our neighbouring hill capitals are far from being.

Besides, this is a relatively safe place. Women, especially, feel much more secure here than they do in the capital of the country, for instance. Generally, this is one of the safest cities of comparable size in the country. People routinely move about at two, three AM, without a care in the world. True, insurgency and terrorism have brought a different kind of peril. Hopefully, these will be on the wane in the future.

And yes, let us not forget the weather. True, the monsoon months are terrible, especially August. But, for much of the year, the climate is salubrious – not too cold, or hot, and never dry and scorching. Indeed, Guwahati in autumn, spring and winter is an attractive place. The general seediness of the monsoon months goes away. And day to day life here is still far from being the mechanical routine that it is in big cities. Parties, weddings, barbecues, music programmes, picnics – Guwahatians have a ball during the “good” months.

Guwahati is verdant in a way few other cities of its size are. And its verdure is of an astonishing colour. Green, like an emerald, luminous and shimmering, it envelopes all its inhabitants in a greenness that rests the eyes and soothes the soul. Its hills, even in their truncated state, are beautiful, its river is an azure gamosa twisting through troughs of jade. Its pukhuris, bordered by ancient trees, calm the spirit. Who would leave this place for the arid zones of so much of the rest of the country?

All Things Considered, then, it is no wonder that this breed of Rabid Guwahati Lovers is growing from strength to strength, flooded streets and overflowing dustbins notwithstanding.

MITRA PHUKAN