If I were asked how I would design the city of the future, my answer would not begin with buildings or machines. It would begin with a longing—a yearning for a place where no child grows up in fear, where no mother cries over war, and where every person can walk through the streets with dignity in their hands. I dream of a city where there is no violence, no cruelty, no heavy divide between rich and poor, no voices crushed beneath power. A city where all is fair.

I think of the world we live in now—how often we hear of war on the news, how often we see injustice creeping even into the corners of our daily lives. Sometimes it feels impossible to change. But then I imagine this city, and I realise that the opposite of war is not silence—it is justice. The opposite of violence is not weakness—it is compassion. The opposite of unfairness is not perfection—it is the simple act of giving others what you wish for yourself.

In my city of the future, fairness would not just exist in laws or policies, but in the way people treat one another. Imagine a market where no one goes hungry because food is shared. Imagine classrooms where children are taught not only how to count numbers, but how to count feelings—how to notice when someone is left out, when someone needs a hand to hold. Imagine streets where no one fears walking alone at night, because kindness is the culture, not the exception.

The lesson is this: the city of the future is not some faraway dream waiting to be built—it begins now, in the choices we make daily. Every time I choose patience over anger, I am building it. Every time I refuse to look away from injustice, I am laying one more brick. Every time I speak gently when it would be easier to speak harshly, I am designing its walls. The future city is not built only by architects or engineers; it is built by ordinary hearts refusing to give up on peace.

Maybe I will not live to see a world without violence. Maybe this city will not fully rise in my lifetime. But if I can raise my voice for fairness, if I can live with compassion as my compass, if I can leave behind even one seed of peace—then I believe my life has been part of its foundation.

And perhaps one day, children will walk through this city without ever knowing the word war. They will laugh, eat, study, and dream in safety, never having to fight for the dignity that was theirs all along. And when they look around, they will not see towers or machines as the city’s greatest achievement—they will see fairness written into the very rhythm of life.

The city of the future is not a distant miracle—it is the reflection of our choices today. We may not stop every war or heal every injustice, but we can begin with fairness in our own lives. And if enough of us choose it, the city my heart longs for will not stay a dream—it will become home.