The place is stunningly beautiful with its beaches, woods, bushes and flowers offering enchantingly scenic landscape. Its sea and green make it what it is, a sought-after tourist area. Some of its old monuments add to its charm and balmy ambiance in summer has a healing touch. It’s St Ives in the county of Cornwall. I am a visitor here these days. One of its remarkable monuments of the county is St Michael’s Mount in Mount’s Bay off the coast of Marazion. You can use causeway to walk up to it. If there is a high tide, it can be accessed in a boat. On quite a height, as the names itself suggests, it has an imposing presence that looks forbiddingly grand. In old times it must have kept the enemies and pirates at bay.
Another place worth seeing is what they call Land’s End. It’s a headland and holiday complex overlooking ocean in Western Cornwall. The cliffs are mind blowing and views of the ocean create a palpable sense of infinity in our finite world. But beware of seagulls. They can pounce on your snacks. One may be intrigued to know why Land’s End is called land’s end. It’s because this place ‘represents the starting and ending points of the longest journey in Great Britain’.
But what I find socially and culturally more relevant is how people live their lives and interact with nature they live surrounded by. Comparison with our way of life, for example in Lahore, our metropolis, wouldn’t look fair but the mere description would reveal what we lack in our cities. Streets in a cluster of towns in the county here aren’t as wide as we have in Lahore. The roads are mostly two way. Each road usually has two lanes. Drivers coming from side roads don’t bump into you as they are trained to dead stop and wait before coming onto the main roads. And they exhibit a quality a driver must have; patience. So you drive without fear of being hit from any side, left or right.
Roads have pavements for the comfort of pedestrians which encourage walking. It seems everybody here walks which is a sign of being fit and means of maintaining fitness. On the both sides of narrow roads you see all shades of green; hedges, bushes, flower plants and trees, big and small. While driving you literally brush past them. What you see all around is nature in its luxurious growth. One moment you feel you are in the cool dappled light under the trees. Next moment you realise you are actually driving in a green tunnel made by big old trees on both sides of the road with their tops coming together and making a leafy umbrella over your head. When I asked my host, my son in this case, why they couldn’t widen the roads here, he replied with a chuckle; “there is no chief minister here with a bulldozer. People wouldn’t allow the authorities to broaden the roads at the expense of nature.” So no signal-free corridors here as we have in Lahore flaunting them as signs of metropolitan modernity.
Traffic and town authorities here rather lay stress on improving management and raising civic consciousness as tools to address the traffic problems. Destruction of green belts and patches is not taken as a means to solve traffic congestion. Thorough training of drivers is a must without which one cannot get driving licence. Errant drivers are fined and punished. Life, human and animal, is valued. Reckless drivers are not allowed to crush living beings under their wheels with impunity.
Here you invariably see nuclear family. Everyone is on their own regardless of age. They visibly show the absence of what Ezra Pound scornfully derided in early 20th century: “Oh how hideous it is to see three generations of one house gathered together! It is like an old tree with shoots, And with some branches rotted and falling.” As individuals citizens have developed consciousness and thus manage their things themselves. They take responsibility of what they do. It’s remarkable that oldies try their best not to be dependent on others which on the one hand guarantees their dignity and on the other doesn’t put unnecessary burden on the ones near and dear to them. I met a 90-year grand old lady who drives her car and goes shopping. When I was visiting St Michael Mount surrounded by sea, my attention was drawn to an octogenarian lady on the causeway who was walking up with her swollen feet with some effort but steadily towards the monument. Nobody showed any surprise nor offered any unsolicited help. Imagine such a scene in Lahore and imagine the remarks you would hear. On the other end of spectrum you see children being raised with care and love. Children are provided all they need; wholesome food, toys, facilities of play lands and intelligent TV programmes among other things necessary for their robust growth. But they are not spoilt as their meal and sleep timings are enforced. Above all they are subtly thought that they have to be responsible for what they do. Errant children are not tolerated like errant fathers. Parents usually respect their child’s choice if it’s not likely to be harmful. This is a sort of social and cultural process that helps a child to grow as a responsible individual.
People firmly protect individual freedom and jealously guard their rights of privacy. They may look cold and distant to people like us for whom warmth means being intrusive. But they are not aloof. Strangers may greet you with a smile and help you to take group photos. The best thing about the society is that though it has classes but class differences are subtle as they don’t unsettle you by staring in your face.
The state and the society take care that people do not fall below certain standard of living. Such a policy keeps the capitalist machine oiled and prevents people from getting restless. So if you are restless, you may visit Cornwall to rest. — soofi01@hotmail.com
Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2023
