urbanism - north to south

yesterday- urbanism overload- from the northernmost tip of the city to the southernmost.

rupali, ninad, paul and me along with robert from holland met in the morning at 8 in front of the national park entrance to leave for mira bhanander where we intend to place the next fourth year design project. its an area that i have always found very strange and interesting- though not at all “pretty” in the traditional sense. lying just outside the bombay city limits and below the bhayander creek that separates salcete island from the mainland; the area has seen a mad rush of development in the past ten years.

i remember the club that we belonged to ‘green court club’ used to have a swimming pool that stood in the middle of desolate farmlands with horizons on all sides just ten years back. today the pool in overwhelmed under towering residential buildings on all sides. the pressures of development coupled with a complete disregard to any kind of building regulations have led to the most weird landscape of towers jostling with each other amid narrow lanes and perfunctory open spaces in between. in between these new residential developments are the old villages and the industrial areas that use the fact that it is just outside the official limits of the city- and therefore is much cheaper. and on the highway- truck stops and garages line the edge, in between which are overnight hotels and ladies bars.

yesterday we went to meet local corporator mhatre who turned out to be quite a character. we met at the bhayander chowpatty which turned out to be a piece of railway land near the railway tracks overlooking vasai fort on the other side. mhatre had taken this piece of land under his control and had turned it into some kind of public space for the residents- and sure enough, we saw many loving couples sitting on benches staring out at the creek but not being able to see anything because the shrubs were too high. still, i shall leave the nit picking aside, and say that it was quite an effort- the resorted and repainted in green and red shed of the railways with neat corner details, the portable toilets, and the obsession with cleaning the water of the creek (people throw offerings into the creek from passing trains) were all very admirable – and like paul said- it is rare to find a corporator so ‘enlightened’.

but even better than all of this were the stories he told us while we sat in a room overlooking the creek and the bridges. i wish i could type in marathi because english will just not be able to communicate the mad rush of brazenly constructed images “in-shirt karun shaanpatti daakhavtoyse kaa” and hilarious insults “dhunganavar laat maroo ka?”. the chatter was non stop and while i smiled and nodded at all the appropriate spots, and ninad and rupali helped along, paul not understanding anything contributed with complete non sequiters and robert just stared blankly and smiled.

quite a guy- and as he would be- quite an egoist and storyteller. the part that really took my breath away was when in the middle of a story about corruption and land grabbing in the area; he whipped up his shirt revealing a dark pot-belly with scars that ran all across it. 45 times- he said he had been stabbed by the builder lobby in the area for standing in their way. the facts he showed us were quite shocking. two drawings that rohit had made while in crit told the story. all land demarcated for public facilities and open spaces had been taken up by builders for development under the benevolent sanction of well-fed bureaucrats.

mhatres office in the local municipal corporation building had halogen lamps that lit him from both sides like a star preparing to go on stage in a green room. a mirror reflected him to himself- and the walls were filled with portraits of inspirational figures, medals and newspaper cuttings about his heroism.

from there we drove like madmen- dropping rupali, ninad and robert along the way and picking mukul up to the bmc building in south bombay – right opposite the cst.

here it was a new design cell project that we were discussing. saurabh, prajna, aditya and prasad and going to begin work on a project that aims to develop a reasonable solution to the madness of dadar station where pedestrians and hawkers scramble for space. the meeting was filled with bureaucrats who were extremely suspicious of the attempt. while it seems reasonable that there be allowed hawkers somewhere near the stations, they insisted that the supreme court verdict (which is a little illogical) that there be no hawking 150 meters from the railway station, be implemented. our task is to make a plan that will make everyone happy. tough. and in two weeks!

the udri mill land lecture was quite the place to be. in the tiny room on the first floor at the max mueller bhavan a hundred concerned citizen of all types- the activists- burnt by the supreme court judgement that so heavily favored the mill owners but refusing to give up; the planners- drily pronouncing new possibilities for negotiation for the city to at least gain something from the fiasco; the architects, carrying turf wars over other projects out in public forums; the citizens groups – environmentalists, mill workers and social workers; the interior designers- who hyperventilated about the “complete lack of any urban design in tehis city. all we are talking about is numbers!”, and the lawyers – coldly and precisely analyzing the possibilities and the impossibilities of the situation. some students wanted a cause to protest, some others wanted to give up the entire struggle. more than once was the state of planning for the city rued and more than once was the idea of creating a holistic master plan for development spoken of.

now the chief minister is to be met. and on monday a human chain to be formed- outside bharat mata cinema. might go.

and this day, only two days after a long meeting at horniman circle with many more ex-bureaucrats and current ones about regulation 33/7 and the crazy pressures its putting on already stressed inner city areas- and the need to create precinct wise development control rules; and one day after designing “feature walls” for a builders offices in bandra.

one day this schizophrenia is going to take its toll.

i just re read this post- maybe, it already has.

column detail from the railway shed at bhayander chowpatty

the view of bushes towards the creek- bhayander chowpatty

the bridges - bhayander chowpatty


mhatre saahab

mhatre office - with the lighted box shoing a dalit woman and ninad and robert

richardson and cruddas on the way to the bmc

gorgeous cst- opposite the bmc

the mill land meeting at max mueller bhavan. big shots.