Gerald D'Cunha

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, th...

T he building, where my office and classes are located, is almost forty-year old. So, efforts are on for its redevelopment. Series of meetings, heated discussions, trust and distrust, allegations and counter allegations… and, above all, the endless human greed – yes, all these make the redevelopment proposal a frustrating experience… Even though the present market conditions are volatile, and even though the condition of our old buildings is pathetic – and yes, even though many of our residents are senior citizens and are no more in a position to wait for years and years for their new-house ‘dream’ to come true – when it comes to trust and greed, it is the greed that seems to overrule trust. Why not more? Yesterday, one of the prominent property developers had invited us for a site-visit. The sites were around Thane’s Ghodbunder road. One of the sites bore an exotic name. The sales executive literally ‘air-lifted’ us to the 26 th floor to show the sample flats… From ...