LIVING ON OUR TRANSIT CAMPS








A young and qualified friend of mine has been the Secretary of his housing society for over a decade. He is one of the most sensible, practical and intelligent persons I have met in my life. Theirs is a very old – nearly fifty-year old – society, which is now in a dilapidated condition. BMC has warned them either to go for major repairs immediately, or to go for redevelopment. The members, who had originally bought the flats in this society, are either dead-and-gone or are alive in a dilapidated state of health themselves. My friend along with the Managing Committees of his society and the vast majority of the members want a redevelopment of the buildings. The frantic efforts have been going on for over a decade… Countless meetings, endless discussion, the best persuasion, trust and distrust, hope and despair… the greed, the groupism, the conspiracies… They had almost succeeded in their efforts, with nine out of ten things done regarding redevelopment… 

But, alas, the human greed!


It’s stuck there, where it was!


Some days ago, when my friend met me after one of their Committee meetings, he looked very disappointed. “I am making my best efforts,” my friend said, “I repeatedly tell them, that while we all are here on this land with these ‘temporary transit camps’, this land is the only permanent thing. I remind them, that whatever benefit we wish to derive from this ‘temporary stay’ on this land, we should derive when we all are hale and healthy… If we succumb to our greed, we won’t be there on this land.”


They say, in a city like Mumbai, the success rate of redevelopment of old-and-dilapidated buildings is hardly five percent. This explains how flawed our perceptions are… We still think, we ‘own’ this land… and, we are here to live on it, forever!



GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic. Chetna Shetty

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