[Urbanstudy] "Packing up and leaving from Nangla has begun."

[shveta at sarai.net]

On 7:02:12 am 03/27/06 Jeebesh Bagchi <jeebesh at sarai.net> wrote:
> a blog in both English and Hindi, to share with a wider
> public the various diary entries of the practitioners. Do visit it,
> read it, circulate it, share it and link it further. Your comments and
> stories will be very valuable.
>

Dear All,

This is a compilation of the entries from the blog, "Nangla's Delhi", over
the last two weeks. (http://nangla.freeflux.net)

The blog is updated daily.

Looking forward to all your comments and stories.
best
shveta

------------------------------------------------

When One Map Breaks, 
by Love Anand
06.04.2006

A big weighing scale hangs in the middle of the basti. A man stands by it,
two sacks hanging from his bicycle. He is holding another medium sized
weighing balance in his hands. He is weighing some iron pipes on it. Some
men and young children are standing around him. The weight on one side of
the balance reads, “5 kg”. Then he pulls out some ten rupee notes from
his pocket, and counting them, he hands them to one of the men. This done,
he moves through the lane towards the outside.

(Read whole post)

“What is the city, but a passage from in front of us?" 
by Lakhmi
06.04.2006

[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...”

(Read whole post)

Silences, 
by Rabiya
05.04.2006

People are filling their hearts with the consolation that some of them have
a few more days to prepare themselves before their house will be broken.
When they know they will not be allowed to live here anymore, then why not
convince themselves of the fact that this will indeed happen. Struggling
with what is happening to them, they are allowing some glimpses of the
everyday to resurface. That is why stoves have begun to be ignited again.
The dwelling is with us, among us for a few moments longer.

(Read whole post)

The Morning, by Shamsher

There is a lot that the morning today has lost. Like always, people are
making their way to the public toilets, tins filled with water in hand.
People reached there, like everyday. But the queue that is there otherwise
is missing. Everyone recognises its disappearance.

(Read whole post)

A slow fire spreads in a dense forest, 
by Rakesh

As soon as the fear in the heart settled into eyes, the wind, the space,
objects, everything turned into nothingness. That sight which makes the
heart tremble and break, cuts like the edges of a letter cut through hands,
as soon as it appears before the eyes. All kinds of thoughts make their
home in the heart.

(Read whole post)

Not this kind of freedom, 
by Yashoda

I had been running from this place. It shows us a deep shadow of our
future. A future that will not let go of us. It follows us, gazing at us
through different frames.

(Read whole post)

There is no doubt now, by Neelofar

Now most houses have been broken. People are breaking their houses with
their own hands, and taking out that which may be of use later.

(Read whole post)

Broken, 
by Suraj

When a house was made, can only be known when it is being broken.

That aunty, packing her household, getting ready to move, was saying, "My
son got this made on his birthday. That wall, it is the residue and the
result of the estrangement between my husband and his brother. This roof,
it was made pucca when my son got his first salary."

Today, each house is retelling its making before it is broken.

(Read whole post)

A bench is? 
by Shveta

A bench lies at the edge of the lane, in the middle of the street, amidst
locked houses and shut doors. It's a wooden bench. Broken from one leg, but
otherwise complete. It is not painted or varnished. One of the three plain
planks, which make its careful, decorated back, is cracked from the middle.
A young girl in a pink salwaar kameez passes by it. Many minutes later, a
young man with a moustache and ruffled hair walks past it.

(Read whole post)

Nangla Rising, 
by Priya

The sky came into Nanglamachi today. Unless blue is the colour of holes in
walls. Green walls, pink walls, white walls, dappled sunlight walls, "love
is enough" poster walls, high walls, dispensary walls, Rakesh
Cable walls. The sky made its way through falling tin roofs, carefully
dismantled doorframes,over asbestos ground, broken bricks and intact ones.
With each new hour there were new sky formations and new vertical maps of
Nangla being created. One didn't have to stare for too long to see it
happening.

(Read whole post)

Remains, 
by Suraj

Everyone is lost in the rhythm of a drum beat today. Someone is busy
packing, someone is sitting  near the samaan. All around, things are being
packed, things are being broken. And things are being chosen and picked up
from what has been broken. Children are collecting scrap metal and buying
ice-cream in exchange for it.

(Read whole post)

Has he left? Are you leaving? 
by Lakhmi

[I]

"When someone is executed, they are asked what their last wish is. We were
not asked even that. 'We will tell the date, we will tell the date' and
look where they have brought us today. You tell us what sense to make of
this? First they came and wrote numbers on our doors, and said, 'this one
will not break', and then came and painted over the numbers themselves.
What are we supposed to do now?"

(Read whole post)

HC appoints judge to head Yamuna monitoring panel

A division Bench of the Delhi High Court, comprising Justices Vijender Jain
and Rekha Sharma, appointed Justice Usha Mehra to head the Yamuna removal
of Encroachment Monitoring Committee.

The Bench, in its order, observed that that the hope and expectation of the
Delhiite to see the Yamuna restored to its pristine glory should be
fulfilled.The Division Bench also observed that despite the claim of the
Delhi Government that it was spending crores of rupees under the 'Clean
Yamuna' project, people did not find any change.

(Read whole post)

"Everything is under control", 
by Love

A group of policemen is standing at the corner of the lane as soon as you
enter.They are chatting. One of them is holding a black walky-talky, shaped
like a potable radio. It suddenly came to life with a voice wafting through
it. The policeman holding it replied, "Sir, yes, work is progressing well.
Everything is under control. The houses which are supposed to be broken are
being broken. Everything is under control. Yes sir, our force is all over,
sir. We have spread ourselves all over the basti."
"What's the latest?"
"People whose houses have to be broken are removing their things quickly
and leaving, or sitting together somewhere. Sir, I will keep reporting to
you sir."
The disembodied voice sounds satisfied.

(Read whole post)

The remainder, 
by Shveta

As we lock the NM Lab today, we are unsure of what we will return to,
tomorrow. Police has arrived, in a huge strength, in protective gear and
with water canons. Close to forty tempos stand along the Ring Road, some
shared, some hired by a single family, to pack and leave. The cost of
hiring tempos has become prohibitive today.

(Read whole post)

Shifting, 
by Neelofar

Nangla has swollen and is hurrying today. Police is sitting in a long,
endless straight line in front of Nangla. Bundles with household materials
are lying in clusters all over in the space between the Ring Road and where
the houses of the dwelling begin.

The weight of time, 
by Neelofar

Time has a weight, and people carry this weight with them. For instance,
just now I crossed a man who stopped me. His face was wet with sweat from
carrying a heavy load, his breathing was heavy, his clothes had become
dirty from carrying so many things. He said, "Madam, listen... Is our
dwelling going to be broken as well?" I didn't understand. He asked his
question again. Then he said, "We don't have anything - our ration card was
made in 1990."

Whenever I have spoken with anyone in Nangla, there is a pride in them of
having made this place. They say, "It was nothing before we came here."
They say, "We have lived here for so many years."

Names of shops are painted on the walls. Tailor's shop, STD, Beauty
Parlour, and more. Doors and threshold have been decorated with care and
love. Neither the walls, or what has been painted on them, nor the
decoration, and not the time which these hold can be taken along with
anyone today.

But doors and shutters can be removed and carried. So hammers are knocking
at them. But these sounds are few, and far between.

(Read whole post)

Reaching Nangla, Today, 
by Nasreen
29.03.2006

Many conversations reached my ear when I walked into Nangla. There was a
restlessness, and there was hope that someone would put in a word in their
favour to “higher authorities”, for them and the dwelling would not
have to be emptied today. But still, they were emptying the houses,
collecting all the samaan in one place outside the house.

(Read whole post)

Measures, 
by Shamsher
29.03.2006

Dust always flies in the air when a vehicle moves,
One who has dwelled here, impossible from mind to remove!

It is no mean feat to be able to cross the Ring Road, and reach Nangla.
Today police presence is giving the Ring Road a different identity. The
police men sit on the bus stop in front of Nangla, by the Ring Road,
watching amid the dust from the cars passing by, people running around with
their household samaan. The faces of the policemen are flushed with quiet,
ease.

(Read whole post)

Nangla Inside Outside, 
by Priya
29.03.2006

How do I begin to write about today? I have hardly begun to absorb it. When
we were leaving the compughar at 4 this evening, Prabhat, while locking the
familiar green door said, so we have seen this too. In my 13 years I have
not witnessed something like this. I had nothing to say. Neither had I.

(Read whole post)

"You should have seen this place yesterday", 
by Shveta
28.03.2006

Nangla was lively today. There were two new faces - Riyaaz and Omveer.
Mukesh (who I sometimes run into in Bhogal, near where I live) had also
come. Akhilesh and Dilip had come. Of course, Jaanu was there. "NM is not
breaking this week, so you are seeing so many faces." Ankur's family is
packing the last few remains in their house. We had heard yesterday that
his family had decided to shift on Sunday.

(Read whole post)