[Urbanstudy] One Sunday in a City

[sebastian Rodrigues]

Dear Zainab,
The issues relating to Hawkers that you identified are interesting. The 
quetions that you raised about citizens are pertinent. I may further ask: 
Are citizens not People? Are Hawkers not People? Are middle classes and the 
above who sense Nuisnce are not People? Is not the Preamble of the 
constitution of India begin with "WE THE PEOPLE ..." Is notions and 
practices arising out of Private Property deletes people from the scene 
altogether? Or does it creates contests over these contradictions?

Sebastian Rodrigues


>From: zainab at xtdnet.nl
>To: reader-list at sarai.net, urbanstudygroup at sarai.net
>Subject: [Urbanstudy] One Sunday in a City
>Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 23:03:15 +0400 (RET)
>
>6th March 2005
>
>This morning ...
>
>Today is a Sunday. And there is a public meeting today. The public meeting
>is about the Supreme Court Judgment on the hawkers, the hearing of which
>is likely to take place in April. CitiSpace has organized the meeting and
>the 'public' has been invited to attend.
>
>At the meeting, we are being thanked for sacrificing our Sunday and for
>coming to the meeting. The 'public' consists of people holding residences
>in the Western Suburbs and who are completely fed up with the hawkers. We
>are each being educated about our rights as 'citizens'. And while there is
>a lot of talk about rights and awareness, I think about the rights of
>hawkers and whether they are citizens at all. How did citizenship first
>emerge? Who are considered citizens and who are not citizens? Why are
>citizens call citizens and not nationzens of statezens?
>
>Ms. Punj, one of the convenors of CitiSpace addresses the issue of
>hawkers. "They threaten us. They encroach on our compound walls and a wall
>is private property. They are a nuisance." The term nuisance is a
>prominent term in urban talk. Everybody complains of the nuisance that
>hakwers are, squatters are, beggars are, street children are - N for
>Nuisance! We are told of how public space is being encroached by hawkers
>and how we must protect our public spaces.
>
>While the meeting is proceeding and Frequently Asked Questions about
>rights, hawkers and property are being addressed for the benefit of all, I
>start to look around and analyze the virtuous public that has sacrificed
>its Sunday and come to this meeting. Around me are some familiar faces and
>some unknown. While the organizers are spreading awareness and talking
>about rights, men and women in the crowds are socializing with each other.
>This appears to be an upper middle class crowd. As I watch people mingle
>and exchange "Oh hello's" and "Hey, hi's", I think that Page 3 is not a
>phenomenon of just the rich, famous and glamorous. It pervades practically
>all of the middle class. Page 3, to me, is 'socializing', 'networking',
>and 'making contacts', with economic and political connotations. Being an
>'active citizen' is a part of the package of Page 3 - the aware citizen
>and the citizen who participates in the politics of the locality and
>cleans it up.
>
>The meeting ends after a while. We have been asked to photograph hawkers
>near our homes. Photographs are strong proofs which shall be presented in
>the courts in favour of eviction of hawkers.
>
>As I walk out of the meeting, I think about 'democracy', the problematic
>notions of 'public space' and 'representation'. CitiSpace is soon becoming
>a 'representative' of the publics, a protector of 'public spaces'. What
>are the criteria to be representative of publics? Can a representative
>represent all of the diverse publics?
>
>
>This evening ...
>
>This evening, just like yesterday, I am writing down the people who I see
>at Nariman Point.
>Two security guards
>One boy trying hard to kiss his girl
>One guy trying hard to photograph his girl
>Two girl friends
>Three men - dressed in Western casuals
>Two men in Maharashtrian casuals
>One womanish girl with a manly man
>One simple-ly dressed boy with rubber chappals
>Three 'gujju' chokras (Gujrati boys)
>One chana jor garam seller
>One regular tea-coffee seller
>One huge crane lifting rocks and stones and throwing them in the sea
>One man, looking lost, walking slowly and lazily
>One couple - man pensive, woman contented
>One man
>Two men
>Two men
>One elderly man
>One elderly couple, walking at a distance from each other and the coming
>together
>One youngish mother with her son
>One old man in shorts, walking
>One man with a large blue plastic bag
>Two heavy busted and hipped women
>A flurry of 'worker-like' men
>One man with his two children by his side and his wife, sindoor-clad,
>walking behind
>One burkha clad woman with her man
>One Oriental looking man walking
>
>There are seven-eight pages of records of people I saw at the promenade
>today. But an interesting thing that happened while I was making these
>notes was that a young boy and young girl were walking around the
>promenade. The boy had a camera in hand and he would approach people, say
>something to them, ask to stand against the sun and then the girl would
>ask some questions. I thought they were video-shooting for something,
>maybe a student film or some such thing. They approached me and asked if I
>would talk with them. I asked, "Who are you? What are you doing?" "We are
>researching here," the boy said to me, adding, "We are doing a survey for
>the State Bank of India and asking people about their views on the bank."
>I asked again, "Why here?" He responded, "Because you get all kinds of
>people here - a cross section." He then went on to interview and ask me
>about the bank.
>
>As he finished, I started to ask myself does a public space have a single
>homogenous use? Does public who must use the space be defined? What kind
>of a public space is Nariman Point?
>
>As I walked ahead, the Sunday crowd was all over. They come from all parts
>of the city and also all parts of the country. I walked backwards, from
>where I had started. The duo were still doing their filming. They sat down
>after a while I spoke with them and told them how I was researching
>Nariman Point. The boy said to me, "This place gives me serenity. I feel
>calm here. Come here once in a month or so." What does the promenade mean
>to him?
>
>Limmerick of the Day
>The day was long and went on and on. Ultimately, along with some friends,
>I sat down at the Chowpatty beach. A hawker was selling paan. He talked a
>lot and we asked him where he came from and how he feels at the beach. "I
>am from Madhya Pradesh," he replied, adding, "hafta kills. Everybody must
>be paid hafta." And then he went on to say his limmerick which is:
>
>Pheri ka dhanda hai
>Phansi ka fanda hai
>Har jagah dekho
>Sab taraf hafta hi hafta hai!
>
>i.e. Business of hawking,
>Like a noose in the neck
>Look around everywhere,
>Its all about bribery!
>
>
>Zainab Bawa
>Bombay
>www.xanga.com/CityBytes
>http://crimsonfeet.recut.org/rubrique53.html
>
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>Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City

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