Kartikey Sehgal

Can this be a tourist spot. May we make it into one. The area is Verova Village that connects to the popular Mudh Island area by ferryboats. When you are in Mumbai you may like to go to the beaches at Mudh. The ferries at Versova Village are an easier way to reach Mudh; they are economical and save you hours of road traffic.

Versova Village holds a capacity for magnificence; if you can go past the filth and pollution. Any lover of land–and Indians claim to be land lovers—will make this area into a popular tourist spot and use the money to develop the village.

Or some of the emancipated and educated people will criticise the place, the people and the culture; which will find place in the newspapers.

Here are some photos from the place:

 
The ferries are a lifeline for people. Rs. 2 for every trip.

When not in use, the boats can be used to seat people. The locals can run small eating joints. 

Clean this up. Waste of space. 

Boat rides, hired musicians playing as you surf the waters.

Perhaps lodges? Swimming lessons?

Kartikey Sehgal

[October 13 is voting day (State Assembly Elections) for Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh]

The voting day for Mumbai, Maharashtra, and wherever that scary phenomenon called elections is occurring is a dry day. Meaning no alcohol. People could have voted when drunk. That chance is lost.

The phenomenon is scary because apparently, if you don’t vote, you are a monster and directly responsible for the country’s misery. You see, before you stopped voting, the country was very rich and prosperous and gold would flow out of many homes.

So what promise would you be voting for for this time. Would you be voting for yourself or the farmer in Vidarbha who is ever ready to commit suicide. Will you vote because that road in your gully, mohalla, or wherever you stay has a pucca road. Does that make you happy. Roads of the real variety have been in existence for at least two to three decades. You should want more from your money that you pay to the government. Let’s hear this conversation between an Indian voter and his/her friend:

Change, no matter how little, is finally happening. Let me be a part of this change by taking part in elections. Hmm… whom should I vote for? This one has two corruption cases lesser than this other one. But then he was involved in a molestation case… but it was alleged and so that makes him look a bit better. My phone’s ringing… my friend from the developed world…it’s been long.

Friend: Hi there, just wanted to tell you that you must vote.

Voter: Of course, I am voting. But help me out, between a guy under whom sale of girls for prostitution has flourished and another one who is involved in abduction and forceful conversion whom should you choose?

Friend: Come on, no riddles now. Think of these things later, after voting. Anyway, I’ll have to ask my dad for such questions.

Voter: Let it be. What’s your plan for now. Having fun?

Friend: I think I’ll use the sidewalk to any of the several gardens or hit any of the numerous public libraries and vent my anger on the government. We are the same, right? We share the same fruits of democracy!

Voter: Umm… okay.

Friend: You too will go to a public garden? Or a library? I hope at least your government has enough public drinking water sources… we feel we are at least 2-3 less in our area.

Voter: …

Friend: Do you like to take rides in local trains? Just for fun, just to see the city around you?… click…

I must keep the phone down now. I’ll tell her that the network was bad.

……

Voting is an easy way to abdicate responsibility. ‘I did my bit. Ho gaya.’ It is like a forced duty. Not good for the soul. The will to vote should be a self will. It’s okay if you are quality conscious and don’t vote.

Kartikey Sehgal

The Inorbit Mall (near the traffic) and the buildings: Built on untreated garbage

Development is an umbrella term that hides many truths. It assumes the status of progress and many times this assumption is kept out of the periphery of observations.

A common social and political rhetoric states that Mumbai is progressing. It implies that buildings are erected over slums, without any relocation or other plans for the slum dwellers. Thereby, the seeds of class conflict are sown.

One important progressive area of Mumbai is the stretch between Goregaon and Malad and it houses the well-known Inorbit Mall and the Mindspace complex that hosts several IT companies and BPOs. There is something special about this place.

It is built on a dumping ground. Generally that’s how all buildings are constructed; something is uprooted or destroyed and the foundation of a new building is laid. However, it seems that a part of this reconstruction process was avoided by the K Raheja Group, that constructed the mall and the complex.

A background to the construction should shed light on the real nature of development.

“I would never walk near the dumping ground on which they have made this mall. Now I am a very frequent visitor to the mall. But this place sued to be a mess earlier”, recalls a resident staying here for twenty years.

Complaints were lodged against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that used this area as a dumping ground. It acquired the plot in 1968 and for up to thirty years, 1000 tonnes of garbage was thrown here daily. This is the background of progress. The foundation.

Thirty years of dumping garbage in an area that was largely made up of trees and marshland but still hosted some residencies.

“The area smelled, of course and windows had to be shut at all times”, says the resident whose grouse then was not just a complaint. The ‘smell’ that she is referring to is toxic smell. Capable of giving you daily illness. In thirty years the garbage was untreated. Residents complained but nobody paid heed to them. “There were lesser residencies then”.

And then in 2002, the plot was closed for dumping following orders from the Supreme Court of India. It had been realised that the plot could no longer take 1000 tonnes of garbage daily.

The BMC gave the plot to Ivory Properties, part of K Raheja Group. What can you possibly build on a marshy land? So they had to cover it. The garbage from the plot was used as a leveller; the marshy land was filled up. The Mindspace complex and the Inorbit Mall were constructed. The garbage remained untreated. 

The development of this area, then, is not an act of progress but bad business sense, assuming that the builders and the BMC would be held responsible for possibly endangering the health of residents. Because in all probability, the air is filled with toxic methane and hydrogen sulphide.

Progress was never on the mind of the city-makers as can be observed from photographs (below). The area is still populated by illegal slum-dwellers, who, according to a local resident, “would consider the price offered to them before thinking of relocating”. The green patch of land is possibly a part of the marshy land that was filled up with untreated garbage. Some more residential complexes are in the offing. The traffic is terrible.

Finally, the water that you see behind the mall and the buildings is not a river. At least that’s what people say. It could be a nallah although it resembles a creek. It still stinks, especially in the monsoons when it is filled with water. It is perhaps the most distinctive reminder of the murky politics of development.

More reading: TOI

The Mall (forward) and the 'Creek'

Progress reconsidered