The crazy city

The crazy city, that never slept



In the city that never sleeps, it was night. I had just arrived and I was looking around very curiously. This city was extremely secluded and far away from the usual hustle bustle. It was extremely well laid out. The daily schedule of every citizen was, however, highly undisciplined. This city had been built for scientists and other researchers who required a place for their thinking and researching. A city full of forgetful, irritable and ingenious minds ensured that none of them had a regular schedule. Since at least five kerosene lamps burnt every night in the city, the city came to be known as the ‘City that never sleeps’.

Every scientist had been funded by the State, based on previous inventions.

The city too had been built and developed as well as maintained by the State. Each house was built a little apart from the next and had its own laboratory and private library. Bicycles and bullock carts could be summoned with the help of a small hooter that one of the citizens had devised a few centuries earlier. A hooting system had developed over the years that allowed the men who managed the communication system to come exactly where they were required. It was famed to be the most developed cities of the 1st century.

The scientists who lived with their families were housed in the west of the small city and the bachelors in the east. The west had more amenities than the east as the people of the east had no need of parks and amusement theaters. The other people, who managed the city; the cleaners, shopkeepers, engineers, architects and so on, were housed to the north and south, also depending on their family statuses. I was being housed in the south end, the new chief architect of the city. The guide showed me the market, which was in the centre. There was also a common library and science supplies shop. He pointed out the sole cafeteria. It was, apparently, extremely popular as all scientists hated cooking and was the most illuminated building in the area.

He finally led me to my quarters. A petite bungalow in the outermost ring of bungalows of the city was to be my house for a while. It was simple but well kept.

I dumped my luggage inside and sank into the small four-legged bed with the blueprints the guide had thrust into my hands. He had showed me how the little lamps could be lit and how their brightness could be controlled. I put it at the brightest level and studied the wooden tablets. The neat yellowish plans were my base. I had to plan the layout of canals and water supply across the city as one of the scientists had discovered a unique method for irrigation and water supply. I fell asleep with the tablets as my pillow. Next morning I was woken up with a loud hooter. This was my wakeup call as a toothless fellow explained when I opened the door to receive my breakfast. He was the breakfast delivery man and he handed me a small package of leaves tied tightly. He flashed a toothless smile at me as he handed me a clay cup of steaming liquid and walked off with surprising agility. I sipped the scalding brew, burnt my tongue and spent the next few minutes cursing myself and trying to untie the tightly bound leaves as my stomach rumbled.

Soon, I was walking briskly towards the main square. Unlike many of the villages and cities I had been in, I was extremely pleased to find the city to be extremely well planned. Laying out the canals would be very easy. I reached the square without having to refer to the map even once. When I arrived at the cafeteria there was some commotion. A group of unshaven men were standing near the entrance looking at the path ahead. Someone was yelling. I jogged to the path and saw a man jumping up and down. He had a salt and pepper beard and twinkling eyes. He looked slightly mad. The unshaven men told me that he was an ingenious man who had invented something and wasn’t telling what it was because he was busy yelling that he had invented something. I shook my head, laughing as the man almost tripped over his own feet. I looked about for my guide as he was to show me around the city and introduce me to the man who had invented the water system. The toothless man of the morning came up to me and handed me another clay cup of the Burning Brew with a smile. I refused, also with a smile and he pointed me to my guide as he guessed who I was searching for.

I spent the next few days looking around the city, talking with the water system inventor. He was a very serious man and followed me everywhere like a dog, asking me countless questions about the design of canals. I answered everything patiently. After the plan was fully plotted on wood, he peered over it carefully. I waited, rather anxious; his approval was of essence.

The men over here were really mad. This scientist had taken an objection because a sketch of 3 canals’ path was shaped like a bee, which he detested.

He finally finished his examination and having found no sketches resembling any unlikable animals or insects, he nodded with a smile. I heaved a sigh of relief. He bolted into the street like a deer and started jumping like the crazy man of my first morning.

The laborers and their manager arrived the next day and after overlooking the work for a few days, my work was done. The toothless man gave me the tied up bundle for my dinner one last time as I squeezed in with my luggage in the bullock cart. It was night. As usual, I noticed, the city was wide awake.