lavasa again

panorama

walking up and down the burning hot pavement in the middle of the afternoon, outside from the ‘american diner’ where we had lunch complete with coat and hat racks on each red rexene seat and the elvis presley memorabilia on the walls; are tourists brought here tempted by the ads showing pristine lake waters and happy homes in the hills. in the evening the same ‘landscaped’ promenade along the water is thronged by family photographers with their kids in shorts and t-shirts and labour from bihar, orissa and up taking the long walk home- shacks for the somewhere out of sight where they live while they build this piece of middle class kitsch in the middle of nowhere- a hill station built on the banks of a stream that feeds water into a larger lake. a dam stops the water from running off into the greater common good- so while it is rather pristine on this side- on the other red mud and trickling leftovers of the lake. we lived at ‘the waterfront shaw’ – a part of the artificial european medievalness that seems to be the language of the inner city huddled at the base of the valley. the room was blue wallpaper and blue curtains and even a blue painting as a bedhead. the city is like a set. and you can imagine the next akshay kumar song being shot here. the restaurant at ekaant overlooking the valley is a skilled pseudo- traditional verandah in wood. looks fine until you think a little about it. and then you rationalize it. everything is fake anyways... along the criss crossing roads construction is underway for a hill town of rcc single family bungalows in strings cascading down the ravaged slopes. architecture is war on the landscape. like it was going to be. still the city rises like the dream of a paradise of a country gone crazy where the appearance of happiness matters most. the dream life of the global indian city is here. idyllic, pastoral, horrific and surreal.

view from the hotel window

streetscape

american diner

ekaant

one side of the dam

and the other