[Urbanstudy] "What is the city, but a passage from in front of us?"

[CM@Nangla]

"What is the city, but a passage from in front of us?" 
by Lakhmi

http://nangla.freeflux.net/blog/archive/2006/04/05/what-is-the-city-but-a-passage-from-in-front-of-us-by-lakhmi.html

[I]

"What is the city, but a passage from in front of us?

"When people passed from the road they would say, "It is so smelly here.
People sit naked on the road, and shit on the footpath. They would file
complaints... there has been so much investigation into how we live, so
much said about how we ought to live. They have broken this place down, the
first chance they got..."

[II]

"Just last night, there was a meeting in which our pradhan (elected head of
the locality) told us, 'There will be a decision soon [about what is to
become of the remaining houses, built before 1998]'. But let me tell you
this – there is no decision to be taken as far as the courts are
concerned. In the court's papers, this place is not written down as Nangla
Maanchi, but as a place where people are living on poisonous fly ash
deposits, as people who need to be saved."

[III]

"What is to be done in the face of such power? Just think about it - I am
the only income earning member of the family. I have had the floor of the
house relaid twice, got a new door put, and was even going to get beams put
to hold up a stronger, heavier roof. Now I am happy I didn't. Because then
I would have had no money to hire a tempo to transfer my things.

"My children, who are studying in the sixth and the eighth standard have
just cleared their exams. I had been hearing for so long that Nangla was
going to be broken, so I kept postponing getting them admitted into the
next class. But when I did, finally, this has come upon us...

"Arre bhaisaab, just ask me, let me tell you – My basic cost of living is
at Rs. 2000 now. I have taken a place on rent in Kale Khan at a monthly
rent of Rs. 1200. I have to come here every day. And I now spend in daily
commuting an amount which will come to Rs. 800 per month. Afterall, I can't
just simply leave this place empty, can I? Who knows when they will come
and demolish everything, or maybe they give us some slip of paper as
rehabilitation. Who knows..."

[IV]

"How can we fight back? Who should we fight with? The force to fight comes
from being able to see the face of the power we have to combat. But that
face has never made an appearance before us.

"On the 27th of March, we had walked all the way to Jantar Mantar. Some
politicians had also come. They came by car, said something, and left. But
a doubt remained in my mind, and the next day as I took my bicycle and head
out to where I work, I saw police personnel in the thousands outside
Pragati Maidan. My doubt turned to reality, and I came back home. And I saw
they had spread over the entire basti. On seeing so much police where I
live, I couldn't decide what to do first – go get my children back from
school, go pack my things first, inform others who were not there...? It is
the first time I have seen such a thing.

"If they wanted to remove everyone, why didn't they do it all together?
What can the few of us left behind do now?"

[V]

"Who knows on what hope everything is resting? There is no stillness in
anyone anywhere. As if everyone is roaming around continuously. Eyes and
feet don't rest anywhere.

"Somewhere everyone is hoping, whatever it is that gets made here, they can
atleast give us some work in it."

[VI]

"I have lived here so many years. My heart broke each time I saw someone
passing from in front of my door, their things packed. I wanted to call out
to them and ask them to stay. Earlier, when someone used to be leaving, we
could atleast ask them to come stay in our house for some time. But now
circumstances have made the relationship such that it is not in our power
to even ask anyone to stay behind with us..."

[VII]

"That no one will get any place to stay from the Government after this is
broken is something everyone knows. But still, everyone is holding on here.
Earlier we were all fighting for a subway or a foot over bridge to be
constructed over the Ring Road, so we could cross it in peace. But when
there are no people to cross the road, where is the question of asking for
a subway! Today we cannot fight the one who bears the responsibility of
breaking our homes..."

[VIII]

"Nothing is about to happen. Look at me today. I am sitting in a lane
filled with the rubble of houses. So many bricks that it would be
impossible to count them.

"We have been left to be here with what hope? There is no electricity for
the last twelve days. There are so many mosquitoes that people will soon
die of malaria.

"I can't sleep at night because there is no electricity, and by day I sit
looking at the rubble of houses. Now tell me, how can we understand this?

"When the park across the road was getting made, and the road was being
remade, we were all so happy. Now today this basti is being broken and
something new will be made in its place. Tell me, how should I understand
this, make sense of it?"

[IX]

When doors begin to be bolted in a place in the city, where they would
always be open, then how can we think about the city?

It is as if time has disintegrated and collapsed. Eyes look without
blinking at heaps of rubble in the lanes, numbers inscribed on walls. But
still there is something in this place which will never become quiet. What
is that?

My being, my self - a self surrounded by a place from where my eyes can
neither travel into the city, nor make a map of a world.

CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi

http://nangla.freeflux.net
http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net

-----------------------------------------------
It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, 
Such is Nangla,
It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, 
Such is Nangla. 
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CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi

http://nangla.freeflux.net
http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net

-----------------------------------------------
It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, 
Such is Nangla,
It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, 
Such is Nangla. 
------------------------------------------------