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Rural vs Urban Mental Health: Hailing from a city like Kolkata, I’ve always been on my toes. From chasing the school bus so I wouldn’t miss class, to now wrestling with my laptop bag inside a packed metro, breathing space has always felt like a luxury. Even now in Delhi, slowing down feels impossible.

If you’re a city kid too, you know that strange mix of your heart pounding and an empty feeling, even though the city is so loud you can’t even hear yourself. Amidst the rush, the honking, the push and pull of people, there are moments where you suddenly realise that you’ve been moving nonstop, but haven’t truly paused in years.

Escaping The City: How A Slower Pace In Rural Life Saved My Sanity

There’s a strange contrast between city life and rural life, and I felt it when I visited my ancestral home in Harirampur, a quiet little town in West Bengal, during the COVID work-from-home days. While I worked on my laptop in my dida’s (grandma's) room, the window opened to a green field, a tall banyan tree and birds chirping all day. Neighbours cycled past, ringing bells softly. Early evenings, the sun dipped behind the horizon, the golden glow falling on the walls, asking me to slow down.

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Finding Calm Beyond Cities

Finding Calm Beyond Cities (Image Credits: Instagram/The Daily Jagran)

I realised how in the city, everything feels like a race - heart pounding, breathing running short and mind chasing. But in a small town, survival is grounded. Calmness comes from chirping birds and a neighbour’s riyaz in the morning, with bharer (earthen) cha and real smiles, the shade of the banyan tree in the afternoon and sunsets that heal. Those evenings meant family reconnecting over physical conversations and not phones. Nature was my therapy there, where walking barefoot in the fields, breathing air that was serene. I understood that peace isn’t lost, it’s living somewhere else.

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How Urban Life Shaped My Mind?

Mornings in Delhi start with snoozed alarms and the sinking feeling of already being late. Days blur into deadlines, meals are skipped or eaten while working and rest feels like a luxury. The pace that once felt exciting slowly becomes exhausting. Like Shruti Seth, the actor and mental health coach says, “We normalise being mentally fatigued.”

City Life Burnout (Video Credits: Bornika Das)

I thought people were full of connections in urban life. But the truth is, people in cities are trapped in different digital worlds. Friends connect through likes, story replies, WhatsApp chats or Snapchat streaks. Neighbours pass by like strangers and life feels like a constant race. And somehow, in a city of thousands, loneliness feels the loudest.

Rural vs Urban: The Mental Health Realities

In rural life, daily wages, crops, and rations decide tomorrow. Mental health often takes a backseat. As Shruti Seth puts it, “If you’re hungry, your hunger will call before your anxiety does. The basic needs in life are primary.” Families smile through uncertainty, carrying stress without ever naming it. Shruti adds, “Addressing mental health is important, but it can only come after basic needs like ‘roti, kapra, makan’ are met.” However, close-knit communities quietly support one another, grounding their minds.

Mental Health In Urban Life

Mental Health In Urban Life (Image Credits: Bornika Das/The Daily Jagran)

City life showed me what burnout truly feels like, the traffic jams, rent, deadlines and packed metros. Here, stress is visible because therapy gives it a language. In villages, life is slower, disciplined, full of community, but mental stress struggles often stay hidden, unseen and undiagnosed, but very real.

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Having lived both city and village life, I’ve borrowed the best of both worlds. From cities like Kolkata and Delhi, I learned to recognise stress and anxiety and address them head-on. From my ancestral village, Harirampur, I learned the warmth of togetherness. Somewhere in between, I found a kind of wellness that feels real. Mental health isn’t a city problem or a rural privilege; it’s a human need and sometimes you have to see both worlds to understand it.

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