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Downtown & Uptown!

By S Mukhtar. Dated: 7/22/2017 3:27:34 PM

"Uncle."
"Yes dear."
"Downtown: how come the term and what does it mean?"
"Dear; term downtown they say was coined in New York City, was adopted by the United States and Canada during the late 19th century, was clearly established as one proper term in American English in early 1900s, yet was virtually unknown in Britain and Western Europe; even now the term is not generally used in British English. In American English now the term means any city's central business district; British English equivalent thereof still generally is city centre."
"And Uncle, term uptown - whence and what does it mean?"
"Dear, population exploding, business multiplying in city centres, more and more people sold their property there, moved and settled in outer quieter areas - and these came to be called the Uptown; this term too spread though to a much lesser extent."
"Uncle, how about our Srinagar?"
"Dear, much the same - both names Downtown and Uptown have been adopted in Srinagar, even by the illiterate, the latter to a lesser extent though. Yes, Downtown here now is the collective name for the entire centuries old city and Uptown for the new colonies having emerged all around the old city."
"Uncle: Downtown, Uptown…good coinage? No!"
"But why?"
"Ask someone if he lives in Downtown: he seems feeling he is being looked down upon. Ask someone if he lives in Uptown: he seems buoyed up, flattered. Perhaps that is why British linguists haven't generally adopted the terms."
"And, good boy, our Downtown and our Uptown…which one you like more?"
"Uncle, tedious question…but I have some points. The devastating Flood-14 proved that our ancestors, hardly any of them ever having been to an engineering institute, had chosen the best site for our city…O much against our present day academically highly qualified engineers and planners! Uncle, I simply wonder how the planners allowed constructions on wetlands…O now our Uptown!"
"Next?"
"And if this Uptown had to be, hadn't its drainage systems also simultaneously to be? O hardly any and working! One friend told me that his Uptown locality collectively had to permanently engage a full time cab to take them from their gates to the main road and then in the evenings back. Another Uptown locality friend told me all his neighbours have knee-high rubber boots for almost constant use in their area."
"Next?"
"Uncle, Downtown I once saw a boy had fallen down a third story window of his house. Neighbours took him to hospital, fully recovered, they then informed his father. Uptown, I saw an old man dead being taken 80 kilometres to his birthplace - here hardly any would partake in his burial prayers."
"Next?"
"Uncle, what next, next…? Let me sum up. Downtown, - a whole muhallah (small locality) live like one family! Uptown, - I may say every individual is subjected to solitary confinement as imposed in mental hospitals. Great Uncle, 'Old is gold' and Downtown is old."
"Dear, Time is the greatest healer. Uptown too shall one day be old and gold."
"Great Uncle: years needed - No; decades needed - No; centuries needed - Yes, Yes! And so yes, Downtown sure is my choicest place!"