Leeds ' idea that the rural is embedded in the urban is reflected in the biographies of train commuters along the Konkan Coast. Talking to people on the train, it becomes clear that the relationship between village and city is neither unilateral nor dependent. The village cannot be reduced to a peripheral or outdated form, condemned to irrelevance in an urbanizing economy. Neither is the village being artificially preserved by a transportation infrastructure that allows it to function as a bedroom community for city workers. Nor is the village necessarily being absorbed in the sprawl of urbanization. Instead, the village is reinventing itself as an urban habitat, either within the city or as part of a larger system . It has a new relevance for many people who are able to organize themselves creatively along spatial -temporal and familial principles.