the northern edge of the city. vasai on the other side and mira bhayander on the left.
nouveau riche rcc bunglaows near the villages of west bhayander
the city tour series continues with today’s crazy day in mira bhayander. as some of you might know we are looking at this area to the north of the city just outside the mumbai municipal limits as a site for our fourth year design project for the next year. in a previous post i had mentioned corporator mr mhatre and his stories about the corruption and development in the area. today we actually saw first hand the devastation that this is causing to the lives of ordinary people caught up in the middle of all this.
ninad, me and rupali waited in the morning for an hour at bhayander chowpatty for mr mhatre who did not turn up till the afternoon. instead we decided to carry out our scouting on our own starting off with a ride to rai village to the west of the bhayander railway station. this is an agricultural settlement with salt pans on all sides; an old water tank and a temple. we walked down the main street of the village. it was water supply time and women and men were all out on the street with their plastic buckets and metal pots collecting water for the rest of the day. the street was being washed. women watched bemused as we asked them about their wadas- and were told that they are not wadas- but their houses.
the tanks and the temple at rai
the main street of rai
the panchayat at rai and the event
building at rai
on another street i can still see the twisting waist of the bare chested man dancing to the koli music blaring out of the loudspeaker at a panchayat function.
further down the main road leading to esselworld on which
it was late morning by then and koli men with powerful strides were returning home carrying the paraphernalia of a fishing trip -including huge gas cylinders that were tossed over their shoulders casually.
there was some unknown function begin celebrated everywhere and we saw beer can chandeliers across roads and pink durbars at street corners along the main road.
pali
pali looking at vasai and the arabian sea
fishing boat with sharks
heads painted on cocunut shells at a temporary screening room on the main road- pali
beer can chandelier on the main road - pali
on the way to meet paul at bhayander railway station west we had to go through the horrific gorge of a road that led to it. this cavern is lined for a distance of over 3 kilometers by four to five storyered appallingly decrepit rcc frame structures with absolutely no space in between them. the drive through this street and imagining living there was nightmarish. we picked paul up and then drove further into the concrete jungle of the area.
its like a dystopic vision of a future city has come to life here. the rooms are tiny and the structures are in terrible condition. it seems like nobody gives a shit about the way that people live. buildings overlook dumping grounds stinking with sewage and carcasses, roads do not connect to anything, one cannot even begin to ask about public amenities. the city met the hinterland too fast and destroyed it all.
to think that rai was what this now is. this is the violence that development creates.
the road in hell
bhyander railway station
water body / sewage disposal/ dumping ground and housing
creek / sewage disposal / dumping round and housing
i was almost glad to get out of there and drive to mira road where the late 90s and 2000s development were sitting on crz (coastal regulation zone) land- blatantly flouting laws. prettified exteriors and facades concealing a rotten interior.
when mhatre joined us later in the day we were taken behind these exteriors and shown the way the plots are built on mangroves and how the natural drainage lines were being blocked, covered and sold off as real estate. the buildings built on this land were now sinking. cracks appeared in all the foundations. still people lived in their cells pretending that nothing could happen to them.
have been working for the interior of a developer firm for the past few days and they proclaim all this eyewash about ‘quality products’ and fancy finishes. the interior is all glass floor and acrylic boxes. i found their board on land that was so blatantly being invented out of mangrove land. rapacious and merciless. i was embarrassed that i was working for them. embarrassed and ashamed.
this is the crisis of architecture. kapil can cry himself hoarse about critique through alignment- who in the world does he think he is fooling? architects are merely tools in the hands of big business and cant do anything about it. carpenters- kausik says and he is right. architects have no business pretending to have morality in a city where they sign drawings and approvals that don’t meet with the basic standards of dignified human living.
houses and high tension wires cheek by jowl 
hoardings at mira road station advertising paradise
pretty facades
natural storm water drains being narrowed, covered and sold
cracks in the foundation- a building on its way down
last stop on the long drive was ghodbunder after a trip to the main highway. ghodbumder is a fort on the northern edge of the area. we walked to the top of the fort and saw the bungalow where ‘don’ was shot; across to the vasai fort and the landscape of salt pans, prawn farming that is soon going to be gone.
ghodbunder village
ghodbunder fort
crematorium - ghodbunder
view towards bhayander from ghodbunder
today we went to mhatres workshop for lunch. i must say that there is a lot to admire in the man. he is a carpenter by profession and this little place opposite the railway station is where he carries out his business. he is full of himself and full of stories, but seems to be dedicated to what he has decided to do. today i began to i appreciate the pride he had for the scars on his body that he had displayed last time we met.
rupali and mhatre in his office
mhatre
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