[Points: introduction—natural differences—disadvantages of country life—advantages of country life—advantages of town life— disadvantages of town life.]
William Cowper, the famous English poet, wrote, "God made the country and man made the town." This famous line represents the natural difference between town life and village life. In the country, that is the village, we see things as God made them-the wide open sky above, and the green fields, beautiful flowers and murmuring streams on the earth below. But the town is the product of man's labour and cuts us off from direct contact with Nature.
Both town life and country life have their advantages and dis advantages. The country has no good roads, which makes transport difficult, particularly during the rainy season. There is no electricity, and no proper intellectual atmosphere and recreational facilities to suit different tastes. The sanitary conditions are unsatisfactory, and so are medical and educational facilities because good doctors and teachers generally avoid villages on account of their disadvantages. The shops cannot always supply all the needs of modern life. So people have occasionally to run to nearby towns for their requirements.
But the village has its bright side also. The fish and vegetables you get are fresh, the air you breathe is pure, and you are in direct touch with Nature, which enables you to retain something of your divine origin.
Towns, on the other hand, provide you with all you want. There are good roads for comfortable transport, electricity for physical comfort, good schools and colleges for education, good hospitals and clinics for proper medical treatment, and good stores to meet all your wants. For recreation, you have clubs, libraries and show-houses of different kinds.
But town life has its disadvantages too. The air is full of smoke and soot, and the food is mostly adulterated. It's constant din and bustle gets on your nerves. You are always in a hurry as if some invisible demon, the demon of materialism, were driving you on with a whip in hand. In short, life here is so artificial that man soon loses his divine origin and becomes almost a machine. This is why some thinking men have raised the cry of "back to the village' in order that man may get back his soul he has almost lost in the artificial materialistic life of the town.
