BHOPAL, Feb. 24 -- Aspiration is too small a word for all the connotations it carries. Beyond communicating hope and optimism, it also hints at a degree of effort missing in synonyms like 'hope' and 'desire.'
As a city, Bhopal has remained hopeful and desirous for far too long. Its penchant for clinging to the faintest glimmer-though commendable-was often seen as daydreaming from the outside. But within the city, hope was a fair currency-perhaps the only one it had left.
Farmers sowed their fields season after season, despite minimal returns, in the hope of a good monsoon and a better yield. Parents scraped together every penny to send their children to school, even when the promises of employment remained unkept.
And yet, the city rejoi...