Gharonda ( a homestead)...

Pramila told me conversationally one day that the Railway Authorities sent an officer to their 'basti' warning them to "go away" or " he would demolish their houses - he had the 'order' ". We laughed at the ridiculous notion and she went back to washing dishes.

Next day Pramila didn't turn up for work, nor the day after - or the day after that - on the fourth day her son Satish woke me up rather early with a shrill door bell that wouldn't stop ringing.
" What's the matter ? Where's the fire ?" I asked irritatedly, alluding to his desparate and urgent bell ringing. " They have pulled our house down, my mother won't be coming for work for some time, she sent me to tell you..." he replied, dead pan. I looked at him properly then. He looked unkempt, unwashed and like he hadn't slept in days ( not like the normally tidy guy who came with clean clothes on and his hair neatly parted and combed even when he turned up at 6 a.m. on sunday mornings to wash the car ). There was a bandage on his hand and a wild look in his eyes. Detecting the look of sympathy on my face, he broke down momentarily, but controlled himself immediately. " We are in a very bad way. I injured my hand while trying to save the tin sheets that we had as a roof; I am not going to work too -" ( he had just been employed by a Courier service and was very proud of his 'employed' status though he had to cycle around town the whole day long).

I went to see Pramila that day at her 'home' that was no more. I had never gone 'visiting' her before and had only a vague idea that she lived somewhere by the railway line down south a few blocks and on the other side of the bridge from our own apartment complex that was by the railway line too. We just drove down the Koregaon park south main road - an area that houses the very rich of Pune and also the internationally known Osho Ashram, where you pay Rs. 14,000/ for one of their two day courses. ( on meditation? World peace? I wouldn't know, i haven't attended!)

On the other side of the road from the big houses was a pucca road leading to a smallish slum. The Republican Party welcomes you to Ghadge Nagar, proclaimed a big billboard.
"Is this where some 'houses' have been demolished?" we asked at the ubiquitious pan thela. "Not here, these are all 'permanant' houses" said one of the residents proudly "go there behind that school building " he pointed out the way to us.

The road just ended behind the school. There was a vacant ground after that where a lot of people seemed to be making jolly as if on a picnic! Women were squatting on the ground and making omlettes over sizzling frying pans and men were walking 'in' with baskets of vegetables - children were sitting on make shift chairs reading.

I am sorry to note that this really was my first impression. When i looked closer, I saw beds and dressing tables, steel almirahs and TV stands, bundles of clothes and pots and pans all in the open huddled in groups round the 'camp fires'.

Pramila's neighbour's and another bai of our area had spotted us by then and came to escort us to Pramila's domain. Walking to the other end of the 'picnic ground' and just on the edge of the railway line we then saw the row of broken huts. Smallish squares where partial walls still stood mute witness to the homes they had contained till just a few days ago. The first awareness that hit me was - such tiny living areas that house(d) families of 6-7 + ? My second thought was - how can anyone live so close to the Railway lines? ( Well - that's why they were demolished in the first place common sense told me ) People had industriously removed all their belongings to the said ground, but still sat vigil over their 'spaces'.

Pramila was upon me by then, a much darker and some what thinner Pramila. Clutching my arms, she burst into tears - " see, what they did to my home; that's where I lived...we are all out in the open now" she pointed to a vacant square unaware that a note of pride had crept into her voice that had just stopped sobbing. " I had paid Rs. 40,000/ for that space just last year. See, my kids go to school just there, one is in the fourth, one in the seventh and my daughter has her 10th board exams starting soon. " Even as I watched two teenage girls were cleaning the ghost of the house open to the skies with broad sweeps of the broom.
"Finish fast, madam has come to visit us " Pramila bellowed out to the girls - " will you have tea sir? madam, what about you? my sister in law will make it for you in her 'house' - it is still standing, it was one of the few that was spared, that other girl is her daughter..." she rambled on.

I made my escape from there fast, as you can imagine. But I was in the throes of a strong guilt even as I entered my own secure flat a few minutes later. It was somewhat untidy and dirty because Pramila had not been around a few days, remember? The three hour daily power outage had just begun but for once I didn't curse the damn MSEB. It felt like heaven to me that day, just having four rooms that still had a roof over them - and not even a tin one! So what if the PMC taxes were killing and the Builder charged a bomb as maintenance charges, I had an inviolate space at least, didn't I?

For the first time in my almost 50 years of life I understood what happens when you read a news item that says " 100 huts uprooted in the anti encroachment drive undertaken by the govt" This Maharashtra CM has reached a count of a 100 thousand already. It is listed as something of a feat, an accomplishment and even national news media seem to think so. Because we live with a mind set that only looks at slums as an abberation, a dirty mole on the face of our otherwise 'beautiful' city(cities). We forget that these are not just dirty brick, mud and thatched with plastic/tin/asbestos abominations, they are HOMES to people. They house children who go to school - it's a marvel any one who lives there actually passes - but last year one of these kids even topped the state merit list! They house a Pramila who is so proud that her eldest who is "12th fail" has begun a job that brings him Rs. 2000/ a month and his boss is so happy he is going to get an increment soon, and money to buy a scooter too! when that happens she will get him married.

These huts are where people live, eat, sleep , dream and build whole life times around. They watch TV too here and see ads for paint and tiles and other TVs and ACs contained in dream mansions they will never have but there is no palpable resentment or jealousy. At least not yet, anyways... After all, who keeps these houses clean? Who cooks in them and who drives the cars that are parked so royally out there ? Pramila, her sister in law and her husband, who else? Why do these huts always come up more around rich affluent areas? Is it because these people have a taste for the 'good life' and like to rub shoulders with the 'rich and famous' ' the bold and the beautiful'?? Or is it vica versa - the rich need them or how would they exist? Would these mem sahibs enter the kitchen thrice a day to cook, look after their own offspring while their hubbies washed and drove their own cars ? Watered their own gardens, taken their own dogs out for walks twice a day?

And does tbe glamour of such jobs bring Pramila and her family to the city from which ever village they have hailed from ? Or from the hell holes of Bihar, Bengal Orrisa or UP? Does the lure of washing dishes for an ex film star/ well known industrialist/ popular politician make these folks forgo their roots and come to the cities? Or is it the annual floods of ravaging rivers, like the Kosi in Bihar and the Brahmaputra in Assam that does the uprooting ? The erratic monsoons, the dried orange orchards that offer no more wages for daily labour and the cotton/sugarcane farmers who used to employ a dozen people but have to make do with 2 - 3 now because of the rates they get for their produce after spending on all those inputs like seed, fertilizer and pesticide? Some of these folks may have been land owners themselves: instead of coming to bombay/Pune/Nasik/Nagpur they could hae just stayed behind and committed suicide like the hundreds/ thousands others all over the contry, right?

In conclusion, let me just ask you one thing. If you had these annoying house sparrows that are so common in India, encroach upon your homes and try to build nests over your fan hubs? Would you throw them out 'bag and baggage' immediately that they ventured on their house building spree or wait till they laid eggs, hatched the eggs and helpless little fledgelings to feed. When their young hadn't developed wings strong enough to fly, would you pull out the nest then and damn the consequences?

If we can't do it to the sparrow, how can we do it fo fellow human beings?