Can We Prevent Unplanned Urban Development I?

This graphic picture is from Greenpeace, India.
Here's the link.

I used to be a fan of Tavleen Singh's columns in the eighties. Recently I’ve rediscovered her and have started following her on twitter.  One of her tweets baldly declares, "Unless we realize the vital need for planned urban development India will become the largest slum in the world. And, sooner than we think." A dire warning, if ever there was one.

Planning of cities and distributing resources has to be undertaken by the government. It cannot be left to individuals or corporate interest.  Take migration to our cities. In the eighties I remember reading something that stuck in my mind - that a thousand people migrated to Mumbai every day. That means one thousand more people used the same, unchanged resources of Mumbai daily - resources like water, electricity, land, our roads and footpaths. I don’t have the numbers for today. This is a huge burden on the city’s finite resources and there simply might not be enough to go around unless our government has plans to increase those resources. There will come a time when people will use any means simply to be able to get their hands on these fast depleting resources. Take land in our cities to build on. In the sixties and seventies there was enough for everyone. Then, as demand outgrew supply, our flats started getting smaller and more expensive.

If our builders had their way, they’d build wherever there is space. Take Gilbert Hill in Mumbai, for example. It is one of only two 65 million year old rocks on Earth. The other one is in the US and is declared a heritage site - protected and preserved by the government. The one in Mumbai is hemmed in by tall buildings and desecrated by humans, has a temple on top with a resident caretaker and builders are trying to get permission to build on it. Over 33,000 people have signed the petition to save Gilbert Hill.

What chance do the poor have to live in comfort? They simply put up shanty houses and now, we have shanty towns within our cities. They also encroach on our footpaths, railway stations and any public place – as long as they can remain in the city to eke out a living and feed their families.

Villagers come in their droves too as there is no proper infrastructure in their villages. I have written about their investing in wiring for their houses in anticipation of the government’s promise of an electricity grid. The government did not fulfil that promise in thousands of our villages. Thanks to private enterprise and having to re-invest again, they now have solar panels. (The post is here) I leave it to you to judge whether the government is short of funds or whether individuals in the government siphon off funds allocated for various noble sounding projects for the good of our villages.  And that is just one of their (the villagers’) problems. There’s the lack of pucca roads. No infrastructure and no connectivity? It is difficult to eke out a living under those circumstances. The obvious solution for many - why not migrate to our cities?

Cities like Mumbai attract the well heeled, villagers, farmers and the poor alike. Tavleen is right. Urban development in Mumbai is definitely unplanned. 

When they migrate, the well-off get assimilated more easily and their adding to the burden on the city’s resources is less visible. What problems do the poor face and how do they affect the city’s resources? Their living quarters are crowded and cramped. They either have relations in our slums or they encroach on our footpaths. They have nowhere to carry out their daily ablutions. It has to be public places. They can only afford coal or kerosene as fuel. These aren't good for the air we breathe. In crowded and cramped conditions with so many people breathing and going about their daily lives, coal lacks enough oxygen to burn efficiently. As a result, the end product is not only carbon dioxide but carbon monoxide. This is poisonous. The quality of the air they breathe suffers. Their health suffers. And to think they've had to leave their villages and farms where the air they breathe is much less poluted!


Part II discusses Garbage and what we can do. One of the most obvious outcomes of unplanned migration to our cities has been garbage. Some known and unknown facts about this monumental problem...




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Mumbai’s Psyche - Excerpt from Never Mind Yaar

Today, we know there is nothing unusual about living with diverse cultures. It is a world wide phenomenon. But there is this other dimension to Mumbai, which makes it so unique. Except for scholars of religions, no other people in so many numbers seem to know so much about the philosophies of different religions. 

The knowledge almost seems to be acquired by symbiosis. If analysed, it may, no doubt, be very superficial and even inaccurate. But borne out of this has been a slight blending of faiths. Thus, it isn't unusual to see, a Parsi lady paying her respects to Sai Baba - offering Indian sweets and praying fervently for all things most human beings pray for (health of a loved one, success in an exam) - without losing her devotion for and prayers to Zoroaster; a non-Buddhist declaring a fast on Thursday out of respect for Lord Buddha; Many Mumbaikars, irrespective of the religion they were born in, believe in putting garlands of Marigold at the entrance to their homes for good luck during Dusshera - the day Ram returned to his kingdom, victorious, after defeating the evil rakshas or demon, Ravan, who had captured his wife Sita; And many believe in the Hindu Goddess of Wealth - Laxmi, (the word is now synonymous with wealth in many an Indian vocabulary) who, it is said, only enters brightly lit places during Diwali.

Rachana - Mrs. D’Costa’s maid - being a very devout Buddhist, celebrated Lord Buddha and prayed to him through the year. But she also went on foot for seven continuous Wednesdays, to attend the ‘Novenas’ at the Church of Mahim, about 5 km from her home.  Over there she prayed to the Virgin Mary to turn her alcoholic, wife-beating husband into a new leaf, which was asking for nothing short of a miracle.

Perhaps it is sights like these - the willingness to gain succour and strength from saints of other religions without feeling one is letting down one's own - that has made Mumbai so unique in the eyes of her residents. And perhaps, that is why, so many of them seem to have this implicit belief in the truly secular nature of their city.

For reviews and more about the book go here  
Excerpt 1

Excerpt 2
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Bombay In Her Heart - K.Mathur Interview

I enjoyed being interviewed by the Hutt News for Never Mind Yaar and managed to talk about many things I feel strongly about besides the book.

Please click on the photo to enlarge and read the interview

In NZ the book is available at The Best Little Bookstore 

Also available on Amazon, USA.

For excerpts and reviews please go to the following page.

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Mumbai Blasts - Again

Why Mumbai? And why so often? Who hates us that much? And WHY?

Are we an easy target? Is that because we are peaceful and don't interfere with others? Is someone trying to get cash for another major hate filled project? After all one of the three simultaneous blasts was in the gold market - Zaveri Bazaar.

And another thought that comes to mind - Will we ever come to know answers to any of the above? Or not? Will we ever know the truth?

On a personal level, everyone must hope family living in Mumbai is okay. 21 lives gone for no fault of their own. What a needless loss. Whose God allows such a crime? Some terrorists say they don't care if they die - life is expendable. Then why do they ensure their families are well looked after when they are gone? Why do the ones who preach them that life is expendable, reassure them thus? Is their family the exception to that concocted-for-convenience belief? Why don't they let their family join them in heaven? Why ensure their well being on earth? I think suicide bombers are as trapped by their circumstances (mostly poverty) as we are by the desire of those who want (and wish for) a different world order where they are in power - the ones who train and enlist these bombers.

Before this becomes a rant, I know it isn't suicide bombers this time. This time the bombs were planted. Three in all. Simultaneous explosions as in the 1993 Mumbai blasts when there were eleven. As usual, the public rallied around to help the injured. Handcarts, trucks, motorcycles, whatever was at hand was used to transport the injured to hospitals.

Is there anything the public can do before such an event? Some say it was a tiffin box lying about that concealed the bomb; others say it was in a car. Mumbai is chaotic. Too easy to leave something somewhere with no one paying attention. Terrorists love chaos and thrive in it.

Perhaps only if we wring order from chaos will we be able to see things clearer. What can we do to prevent packages from being left about?  Be trained through television to be more vigilant? Perhaps drop written complaints or suspicions into boxes? A direct phone line? I think it all sounds like a logistical nightmare with millions of real or imagined suspicions and sightings daily.

What should we do about vendors or the homeless - arriving into Mumbai in their droves everyday because there is no infrastructure in their towns and villages - clogging our footpaths. Do we turn them away? Mumbai never has. We feel helpless. Perhaps the government should stop collecting tax payer money for their individual Swiss accounts and start on infrastructure for our towns and villages.

Somethimes I wonder if Swiss accounts were stopped, would poverty be wiped out? But that is another thought for another day.

How else can we make our beautiful, coastal city less chaotic? How else do we make it difficult for terrorists to stop hurting us? Hope, for starters, the ones who set off these bombs are caught and severely punished. Hope their leaders are exposed and swiftly brought to justice. Hope we can do something to ensure there are no more bombs in Mumbai. Hope we know what that "something" is.


People are not buying into platitudes from ministers who see an international photo opportunity and mouth platitudes about the "Indian spirit". This is what another blogger writes,

So, it has happened yet again and all we get to hear is a confirmation from the Hon Home Minister “yes it was a planned terror attack”. Thank you sir for letting us know. Now what about protecting us? The title of this blog post - Bombed!!! Doomed!!! And Living On..... The link: http://books-life-n-more.blogspot.com/2011/07/bombed-doomed-yet-we-are-still-living.html

India Today's link to today's (yesterday's) blasts: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/mumbai-blast-three-blasts-in-mumbai/1/144704.html



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The Mumbai I Knew

The Mumbai I grew up in had one icon worth mentioning - the Irani cafes. They were unpretentious and clean. They welcomed people from all walks of life, any community and all stratas of society. The service was good and the food was cheap. They served the best Brun Pao or crusty bread roll with white butter and chai.

I remember, when I was a flight attendent, we stopped off at one in our uniforms at around 5:00 am on our way back from a tiring flight. Fifteen minutes of unwinding with a brun pao, chai and an especially nice band of colleagues literally washed away our tiredness. In those days even the van drivers who took us back home from the airport were game and had the time in-between drop-offs and pick-ups to stop off at the cafe for a chai and a brun-maska. I wonder if those days can ever be repeated today. Sigh!

I loved these Irani joints and have discovered two websites that give a good description of them. Geobeats is one of the best websites I've discovered about the Mumbai I grew up in. It pretty much covers all my favourite joints - Irani and others - in the Bombay (now Mumbai) I grew up in. http://www.geobeats.com/videoclips/india/mumbai/britannia-restaurant

But for a detailed description, pictures and history of the Irani joints and the Iranis who ran them, I've recently discovered an article by K.E.Eduljee which I've added (in Sept 2011) to this post.

The link: http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/irani/cafe.htm#iranicaf

To end, on a personal note, much to my regret, we couldn't stay in Mumbai for long during our last visit. We were anxious to be with someone who was almost on her deathbed and cut short our stay in Mumbai. (Happily, she is recovered, at least for now.) I do believe the kids enjoyed Pune, Jaipur and family very much. I am keen to show them the Mumbai I grew up in and knew intimately - perhaps next time.



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