कभी इक लहर सी उठती है,
कभी जल थम सा जाता है…
ऐ सागर तूही मुझे बता,
तेरी प्रकृति है वास्तव क्या…!?
– २७.०२.२०११, नेरुल
27 Sunday Feb 2011
Posted culture, experiences, hindi, life, literature, philosophy, poetry
inकभी इक लहर सी उठती है,
कभी जल थम सा जाता है…
ऐ सागर तूही मुझे बता,
तेरी प्रकृति है वास्तव क्या…!?
– २७.०२.२०११, नेरुल
14 Monday Jun 2010
Posted culture, english, experiences, life, management, philosophy
in“One-Hand Distance!”– That was one of the orders for disciplined line formation in gym and scout classes in school. We would measure a hand’s distance from each student to our right, left, and front. That was that simple: perhaps some kind of consulting study must have helped determine that the average length of each school student’s arm is just about the same in each class. Or, rather, the hand was more to establish relative coordinates than perfect distance. Whatever it was, it made things a lot orderly and simpler to manage for the powers to-be; and therefore, was much efficient from the students’ perspective as well.
There is also a saying in India that literally translates into this phrase–‘एक हाथ दूर रहना’ (ek haath door rehna). However, being a saying by definition, it has a slightly deeper meaning. It refers to deliberately staying away from something. This something can be various things. The usual suspects are bad habits and bad company–and thus, bad influences in general.
What was interesting for me to notice was how strikingly like-scripted both were, yet how the former had a rather functional reference, and the latter, a philosophical one which can be extrapolated to the way of leading life. And at the same time I am about concur, and put a end to this straight-forward discussion, I can’t help but notice that in their individual contexts, they intrinsically function in a similar fashion to remedy the respective issues. This is something like a cross-industry best-practice revelation to me! Haha… The words remain the same, and at a fundamental level, they both work on the principle of ‘caution is better than cure’–in order to avoid resulting complications, they preach their audiences a rather simplistic order/thumb-rule which make things run much efficiently!
Howmuchever we–the free generation–would like to deny it, the fact remains that some things, some places, some people, and some paths, are best left unexplored; and perhaps, for not just your own good, but that of many a other souls! Or is it so really? Where do you draw the line between learning-form-the-past; and learning-from-your-own-experiences? ;o)
Perhaps I would expand on this a bit more in the near future. For the moment though, on an ending-note, I am going to start a page titled ‘one-hand distance’ on Facebook, to go with this thought. If you find this interesting enough an observation, feel free to join-in! 🙂
31 Monday May 2010
Posted city life, culture, experiences, life, society
inFuelling dreams
We came to live in Navi Mumbai, the satellite/sister city of Mumbai, in 2005. Navi Mumbai was conceived to be a ‘planned city’ that would share the burden of the ever-congesting metropolis that was Bombay. A highly ambitious project, it was under the purview of the City and Industrial Development Corporation of India (CIDCO of India). My father was an employee of CIDCO, and it was very impressive to realise the amount of pride he showed in his company, and its creations. In fact, founded in 1979, through the 1990’s when I was a school-going kid, the Navi Mumbai story had picked commendable pace, and was indeed taking shape with great gusto. I had not visited the geography much, but had always heard of these stories of an award-winning bridge being made, of plush railway stations like those abroad, and this American fast-food chain by the name of McDonalds who strangely enough, chose to place a shop in some place called Vashi making a dent in glorious Mumbai. As a kid, I naturally extrapolated on these realities and thought of what other amenities would be there for the taking. These people heard that NRIs [Non-Resident Indians] were going to return to India, and had developed a whole project around their needs, to accommodate them and their Americanised lifestyles. All in all, CIDCO was incredibly foresighted for a semi-Government organisation—nobody can possibly deny this fact!
And then came the bogeyman
As things progressed—and the arid salt-producing landscape turned to a concrete jungle—the Government part of the organisation realised it as a profit centre and visibly corrupted more than its share of this once brilliant body. It was sad to witness the death of the spirit of the organisation, and with it, that of this upcoming city. Bureaucrats and goons popped their ugly heads, politicised development, and made retirement plans for the rich in the name of public good! Founded with the vow of city and social planning, where there would be nodes and sectors with a mix of residential complexes for the higher middle class, middle class and lower middle class in each; and where the buildings were to be under four stories (or was it less?); this landscape had to have open gardens and large roads galore. However, as things got politicised, whole sectors that were yet to be developed were sold-out to private builders who built expensive multi-storied complexes which in turn also meant not only a ban on those who could not afford these rates, in the absence of CIDCO-accommodation in these areas. The rich kid had his cake, and alone!
All was not lost
Moreover, the massive plans to shift the burden of Mumbai did happen, in terms of residential shift at least. The newcomers to Mumbai, those who could afford their own housing, often could not afford one in the main city, and they did shift to Navi Mumbai slowly and steadily. However, the offices, and amongst them, the star offices of the Government, did not respond particularly well to the movement. For example, the Mantralaya (administrative headquarters of the state of Maharashtra) refused to budge from profitable Mumbai, thus giving a major blow to the plan. The once thriving industrial belt of Thane-Belapur which was hit bad in the ’90s was another blow to the dream.
Games people play
For me personally, the biggest disappointment was on the social front in terms sports facilities. Cricket is immensely popular in India, and for that, there is a good reason—it can virtually be played anywhere, with the most minimal of resources! It would not be wrong to say that we love Cricket, but then, there is not much we can ‘love’ besides it! Most other games and sports require a decent amount of infrastructure to support them. In fact, why hockey was more popular in North, and why it is almost [only] a part of history today is the lack of enough open grounds. Whilst n number of little cricket teams play side-by-side in the ridiculously low number of grounds in Mumbai, it is not really possible with hockey, and the same goes for football—these games require an undisturbed-compound for every individual game, and that comes at a premium!
Having grown-up in a middle-class family, I have always taken it for granted that sports were not for me! I was not particularly a cricket enthusiast; and not that I was an born athlete either—just to get things clear—but the point being, what if I were, it would not have made much of a difference. The thing is, most indoor and/or field sports—be it football, tennis, basketball, squash, billiards, or whatever else—were almost exclusively available to the super rich, super successful, or to some government and corporate servants who were lucky enough to work in an organisation that provided these facilities to their employees. That is a lot of people for sure, but considering the general population, what percentage does it make?
When I learnt of Navi Mumbai [as a kid], I thought that there was this was a company which was into building things, building localities, building the future city; and that they would most certainly provide a sports complex for everybody! It was unfortunate to find that not even my dad had any kind of sports-membership opportunity at a CIDCO-Sports Complex, forget the community! To this day, I am terribly disappointed in this fact. Plots are allotted to Gymkhanas that charge an exorbitant amount of membership fees; even their one-time playing charges are so high that not everyone can afford them. And these are obviously high to restrict entry, and to reflect on their members as a justification of the high membership fees. [Nothing economically wrong with that, but then, please do not justify the lack of public facilities by making a mention of these clubs!]
More bazaars
Recently, CIDCO started a project by the name of ‘Urban Haat’ in the planned-to-be-business-district of Belapur. The project is really nice, there are permanent exhibition stalls on a landscaped complex made on the hillside besides the railway station. Small-time handicraft exhibitions are being organised all year round. It is said that these stalls are provided at very meagre rent to these humble entrepreneurs. However, when looking at the helicopter-view, I find it a bit appalling. For one thing, I would rather have the organisation work on its core prospect o building the city and developing infrastructure. I for one, would have loved to hear sometime that CIDCO is developing a sports complex instead.
For one thing, it can be argued that this promotes the arts and culture. Fair enough. But then, I have two questions: 1.) Why CBD Belapur? If it is a cultural attraction, why in your business district? And 2.) Which culture is it promoting? There are no real ‘local’ handicrafts/cottage-industries (who is making salt anymore?)/ food items that are being exhibited here! Exhibitors are coming from all over the state [—what really poor exhibitor is able to afford the travel and accommodation costs anyways]. Therefore, howmuchever a ‘nice’ initiative it might be, the more pragmatic question is, how well does it fit CIDCO’s mandate in the context of Navi Mumbai and its occupants? Is this something that no one else could have done? Why not? (There are certainly at least two more exhibition grounds running a similar fair in the city that I know of.)
About those sports complexes
About building public sports complexes, I realise that it is indeed not an easy task. Although the land acquisition and development part of it should have come easily to CIDCO than say a GMMC (formerly called BMC), there are other largely operational concerns. For one thing, if everyone has access, in a populous country like ours, it would mean that nobody would get to play/practice. Therefore, it definitely cannot be a charity, and a tariff as an entry barrier becomes imperative. It can then be calculated as a factor of not just maintenance costs, but also the purchasing power of an individual [or their families in case of minors] such that they can afford the supplementary equipment. Moreover, I can foresee an opportunity for private partnership here, if the organisation felt that it was asking too much from them. In certain developed countries there are cheap/free facilities such as Tennis courts in the gardens of France, Basketball courts in the neighbourhoods of the USofA, etc. However, again, these are in whole other contexts and take care of one particular game. The economics and census digits involved are dramatically different as well. But then, could we modify their models, and try to start with something smaller? I was thinking very hard on the lines that there indeed had to be some affordable complete facilities somewhere—and voila, I realised that it was something that the YMCA was doing! Can we replicate the YMCA model with private-public partnership?
Why Not?
At times, people argue that I am very idealistic. My question—what’s wrong with that? Moreover, another gem of an argument that comes-up in India is, it is not the West, they can do it, they have so much wealth. When was the last time you checked the wealth of the Indian wealthy? If people can spend on luxury items like their Western counterparts, they can certainly invest in society likewise! We are a nation of a billion people. If that is an issue, looking at the other side of the coin, that might as well be an opportunity. Let us discover the hidden gems—it is certainly difficult, but then we stand to find a one in a million jewel [literally]! J
Well, these are just some assorted thoughts that come to my mind once in a while, whilst discussing city planning and public infrastructure in my city, and my country. If you have any suggestions/contributions, please feel free to let me know!