"To put the tale synoptically. The Harappan cities collapsed, the civilization declined, but the people survived it all, though bereft of their glorious past. Their great, great, great _.. grandfathers had brought into being these Gites — gradually from a village economy to that of a town and through great strides to that of a city. The decline of the civilization entailed an end of the cities and reversed the direction. To borrow a simile, the Harappan urbanism may be likened to a storm on the vast ocean of Indian time, which raged, held on for some time but finally subsided, leaving the waters as placid as before. Cities came and went, but the villages kept on for ever!"