City Improbable- Writings on Delhi

by Khuswant Singh

  ‘The surveyors are here,’ a voice came from far. As soon as this voice reached them, people left whatever they were doing and headed for the place from which this voice came. When surveys had been conducted in Nangla, Lakshmi Nagar and all the places from where people have been relocated to this colony, signs had been left on different doors which had remained puzzles for long.

  P98

  NDS

  Lock

  Comm

  The residents whose houses had been marked with these signs didn’t make it to Ghevra. A place might be brand new, but when people begin to dwell in it, they bring with them the understanding they have formed over years. Isn’t there a saying, ‘Scalded by boiling milk, one blows even on buttermilk before taking a sip’?

  A file in their hands, some officers are standing where two streets intersect. A heavy silence is descending around them. People fear government departments. They are gathering around government representatives, swelling into a crowd around them. ‘We will come again tomorrow,’ thundered the representatives. ‘Everyone must begin constructing their pucca houses by then or their plot allotment will be cancelled.’ When they are addressed by a voice that speaks only to dismiss them, even the strongest personalities hesitate. And this, after all, is a crowd of people who are only beginning to live in a place which has just recently started to get made. Their announcement over, the officers turned, ready to leave.

  Surveyors work under the constraint that their job has to be done during the day. Whenever a survey has to happen, it will happen during the day. If a survey were to be conducted tomorrow, which it will be according to these government representatives, it will be during the day.

  The crowd refused to budge.

  ‘Our work too is done during the day.’

  ‘We could take a day’s leave from work, but what’s the guarantee they too will not take the day off tomorrow?’

  ‘Arre, who knows what will happen tomorrow?’

  ‘What we have in hand is today.’

  People refused to let the surveyors leave.

  ‘You can’t leave till you finish our survey.’

  ‘We won’t let you go till everyone’s survey is done.’

  ‘Everyone will come back from work soon.’

  It was beginning to seem now that this was one survey that would have to be done by night.

  6

  It is said about Kanjhawala district that, for centuries, people who lived in it refused to allow the state to enter their homes to resolve their disputes. Whenever a difference arose, it was resolved internally. Sawda and Ghevra are two among several villages in this district. Since 2006, on land the government has bought from the inhabitants of these two villages, it is settling those people whose neighbourhoods it’s demolishing all over the city. This new, emerging settlement has been named after the two villages on whose land it is being built, by joining their names—hence, Sawda-Ghevra J.J. Colony. Perhaps the government thought in this way the villagers will always remain proud that this new corner of the city is being settled on land that was, at one point of time, theirs. But, for every villager who sold his land, whether this place is something they take pride in, or if its new residents are nothing more than unacceptable strangers who have cropped up in their midst, this only time will tell.

  7

  It’s a gathering where there is no fragrance of freshly prepared food, there’s no qawwal, no poet, no star from the world of music, nor is any film about to be released. But still, there is anticipation in the air. The occasion is the inauguration of a school. Not just any school, this is the first school of its kind in all of Delhi. It’s a B.A.L.A. school. Building as Learning Aid—the building itself will teach its students.

  The chief guest is being awaited.

  Potted plants had been placed along the edges of the main gate of the school; flowers and leaves swayed gently in the breeze. A banner saying ‘Welcome’ hung above the gate and continued to draw many people from the colony towards itself. But when time stretches on endlessly, how can restlessness not take over? The waiting children burst into loud applause now and again. Teachers appealed to their students to be patient. An endless stream of do’s and don’ts emanated from the loudspeaker.

  A green carpet spread out till far, and where it ended, a colourful square carpet began, beyond which was a high stage, brightly decorated. All pairs of eyes were fixed on it. Children were going to perform on it soon. The guests being awaited would climb on it and put forth their thoughts. A voice was heard, which soon spread as a murmur through the gathering—the chief guest is about to arrive any minute now. A voice spoke through the loudspeaker trying to hush everyone, asking everyone to be seated, instructing people at the gate to leave, to not crowd around. A dog moved about on the stage, sniffing everything, making sure no unidentified object lay upon it.

  A cluster of voices now reached the gathering from outside: ‘All the residents of Sawda-Ghevra, come out! Move out of there!’ These voices were of those residents of Sawda-Ghevra J.J. Colony who had been stopped at the gate. They continued, ‘This function is not for us. It’s for the school; it’s a function organized by the school management for its own purposes. What’s in it for us?’ On hearing this protest, some people began to get up from their seats and leave. The atmosphere became charged.

  The person making announcements immediately changed his tone and tried to appease everyone, ‘This is your function; it has been organized for you,’ he said. ‘Everyone is respectfully invited. This is your own school. These children are your own children,’ he tried to placate everyone. ‘Please be seated. Please maintain silence. The chief guest is about to arrive,’ he pleaded. Now all the teachers began to get up from the chairs they had been sitting on, offering them to the residents of the colony. Soon each chair was occupied by not one but two people.

  Poetry—the kind that intimates that someone special has arrived—began to be recited. The chief guest’s car and the accompanying vehicles could now be seen at a distance. Excitement filled the air. Police personnel became alert. The sound of clapping echoed through the colony. On the beautifully decorated stage, a group of girls began to sing.

  The chief guest entered the tent. Near the stage, on the carpet, in a pitcher filled with water, an earthen lamp that had been set afloat amidst flowers, lit up. Innumerable tiny earthen lamps balanced along the edges of the pitcher also lit up. Media persons, cameras in hand, flooded the stage.

  ‘Congratulations to everyone on the new building of a new school!’ It seemed there would be no end to clapping in Sawda-Ghevra this day. Encouraged by the applause, now countless education-related words spouted forth from the loudspeaker—education to become an engineer, education to become a doctor, education to become a pilot, education to become a government servant, education that imparts computer literacy … Education is something that never ends.’ Clapping resounded in the inaugural venue.

  8

  In H-block, the roof was being laid over the four walls of a house. Assisting four masons were eight women, who carted concrete-masala from the mixer that stood on the street to the roof. The tea shop was open tonight. The woman who makes tea said, ‘I decided to keep the shop open because this house is being constructed.’ Someone called out from above, ‘Can we get three cups of tea?’ Soon it was 1 a.m. The roof was ready. Everyone went home. The shop packed up.

  In G-block, near the almost-ready Mother Dairy, three cots had been set up at short distances from each other. The third of these cots, which had a mosquito net over it, shook vigorously, as if someone was wrestling on it. One moment it seemed a body was sitting on the cot, and the next moment the body suddenly become prostrate. This went on for about twenty minutes. People slept soundlessly on the neighbouring cots. After some time this cot too became quiet. The mosquito net stopped shaking.

  A drunken man staggered past C-block, muttering to himself. A dog followed him. Under the glow of the street lamps, a woman carrying her child walked towards B-blo
ck. It was 1.30 a.m. A boy of about five years hopped and skipped along the length of the street, all by himself. The woman stopped and asked him, ‘Aren’t you scared?’ He replied, ‘Why should I be when you’re not?’ And he hopped and skipped towards the lane that led into E-block.

  A voice interrupted the stillness of the night. A man was singing. The tune he sang, and his words, both seemed like they were from Rajasthan. A woman danced. Surrounding her stood many more women, clapping, providing a beat to the woman who was dancing, encouraging her. A family was about to spend its first night in its newly constructed house. They were going to spend the night awake, singing and dancing. It was almost 2.30 a.m. From the yellow house a little distance away, came a loud but indistinguishable sound.

  Half an hour later, a man and a woman, their two children in tow, were seen strolling on the deserted road. A religious teacher, an elderly man, walked unsteadily towards the masjid in C-block, with the support of a walking stick.

  9

  ‘She’s left,’ someone said. Today she has left us all, and gone. Who? The one who’d been ill for many years? ‘Lay her body down on the ground,’ someone said. Lay whom down? The one whose turn it is to be carried away on four pairs of shoulders today? The sound of the horn, the beat of the drum, spread. Around whom? The one who’d been ill for very long? Flowers, sugarcakes and smoke from the burning of dried cakes of cow dung filled the road. Where? On the same route along which she was carried away? People had gathered, the bus had arrived. Where? Near the age-old pipal tree? The bus waited for its passengers, and she too climbed into it. Who? The one who’d had some sad tunes playing over and over in her head for the past few days? The wood was sorted, and it was weighed. Where? There, from where she was to leave everyone forever? The pyre was aflame, her body burned. Whose? The one who had been ill for many years …

  10

  A stormy wind blew, lifting up things and smashing them into the ground as it went. Trees bent to kiss the earth. Clothes left out to dry in the evening blew about like scraps of paper. Doors were flung open, banging against their frames, making a clamour like a crowd. The night was dark, the human world still sound asleep. When nature exerts its force, humans lose their hold over the order of things.

  Someone’s tin roof, another’s thatched roof, flew off. Walls trembled. In ten or fifteen minutes, the wind had shaken up and loosened even the binds between adjacent walls. Now everyone began to make feeble attempts at saving their belongings. Through it all, a voice could be heard, saying, ‘It’s only a question of tonight. We’ll see tomorrow morning.’

  11

  When people first came here, this place was nothing but empty land rolling out till far. Tractors would be at work everywhere, trying to level the uneven land. As people came, they were directed to the plots assigned to them, as per their parchees. On these they made their first dwellings with bamboo mats. Then they got their plots measured by the registrar of land accounts and built their houses again with brick and cement. Slowly, as pucca houses began to come up amidst the bamboo-mat houses, the place started taking a firmer form. The unbuilt stretches of land surrounding these emerging pockets of houses began to seem like ‘empty land’. To assure people about them, the Municipality planted signboards announcing what would eventually be made in those empty spaces. Here, a post office, a garden there, a hospital here, a dispensary there, a primary school here, a police station … Even today, these signboards continue to stand on their respective spots, unaccompanied by the structures they foretell.

  It is rumoured that people from twenty neighbourhoods in the city will be evicted and brought to Sawda-Ghevra. People from nine neighbourhoods are already here. Now preparations for those who are about to come is on in full swing. Roads are being built; parks, toilets, schools are being constructed with haste. Before more people are brought here, the place that is going to be allotted to them is being prepared. Some of these new blocks lie in the space between two already settled blocks, and others in the empty space some distance away. Land is measured, electricity poles are planted in straight lines along a rigid grid. People will make their houses after they come, but in the lanes that will lie between rows of houses, brick paths are being laid. Those already settled watch this transformation of land. Over and over again, the plan on the basis of which they have been resettled in Sawda-Ghevra reveals and repeats itself.

  12

  SHIV BUILDING MATERIAL AND HARDWARE SUPPLIER

  dust, gravel, sand, bricks, cement girders, tirons angles, iron bars door frames, gates and grills available here at competitive rates

  Here, far away from the city, many decided to re-enter the world of work by setting up their own shops.

  TRUTH HARDWARE

  pump, paint, materials for whitewash pipe fittings

  PVC materials available here

  As people kept coming, the number of shops kept increasing.

  GET WELL MEDICATIONS

  joint pain, arthritis, allergies, hemorrhoids stones, respiratory problems, etc. are treated here with traditional herbs and medicines

  Cost of daily medicine Rs 10 only

  KALEEM TELECOM

  photocopy, lamination

  Make a call to anywhere in India for 1 Rupee!

  All kinds of electrical material available

  In every block, the ground floors are being moulded as shops, the first floors as residences.

  BHOLE SHANKAR MATKA KULFI

  Available in cashew, pistachio, milk and cardamom flavours

  Bookings are made for weddings

  MITHILA HAIR CUTTING SALOON

  Mobile recharge coupons available

  Walk through these lanes and you hear the entire colony hum the tune, ‘shop below, house above’.

  NARENDRA (TEELU HALWAI)

  (SK HUSSAIN)

  Buy milk sweets, condensed milk, chowmein, butter at proper rates on placing orders

  Note: Bookings are also made for weddings and parties

  Also available artisans for these occasions

  The daily needs of the residents of Sawda-Ghevra are comprehensively catered to by these shops.

  SISODHIA CHHOLE BHATURE CORNER

  Come, eat!

  Keep eating!

  But much still remains. One realizes this each time a new shop is opened.

  TANNU JEWELLERS

  All kinds of readymade silver jewellery available

  22, 23 carat gold jewellery can be made on order

  Do give us an opportunity to serve you

  13

  Radheshyam owns a PCO booth, which he runs from the stall he set up soon after he came to Sawda-Ghevra. From this stall, one can also buy cigarettes, toffee, tobacco, pan masala, a range of snacks, chips and biscuits. That’s not all. Many more kinds of everyday things that Radheyshyam thinks his customers might need from time to time are also sold—like hair oil, combs, lighters, eye liner, toothbrush, toothpaste, digestives, etc. The space that gets left over in his stall after it is filled up with all these items is really little—just enough for him to squeeze himself in and sit. And Radheyshyam is a very short man.

  All the houses have been constructed keeping in mind that over time, as facilities keep reaching the colony, the height of these lanes will increase. First the lanes were measured and marked out, then these spaces were filled with mud, bricks were laid, drains were dug for sewage and the lanes remade. All this happened over several months, changing the height of the lanes each time. This is still just the beginning after all. That is why, when the foundation of a house is prepared, it is raised till about five feet above the ground, and it is over this height that the building is constructed.

  Radheyshyam’s stall too got affected whenever a lane was dug up and remade. Each time, he had to shift his stall, change its orientation to the lane. Radheshyam deduced that, in keeping with the requirements of this continuously changing space, he would need to alter the make of his stall. He removed the two wooden pillars that propped up his stall on
the ground and fixed four wheels in their place.

  Even though Radheshyam’s stall stays on the same spot, and its wheels remain locked, by innovating with its structure he has ensured that whenever the lanes are dug up, he will be able to comfortably roll his stall over to another spot. Gaining confidence from the duration for which this stall has been in the same spot, a barber recently set up a mirror and a chair to the right of Radheshyam. Soon after, a tailor set up his sewing machine to the left of the stall, making that space his.

  14

  ‘Arre bhaiyya, he behaves like a madman.’

  ‘No that’s not true. I’ve worked with him. He’s very wise, his words reflect his wisdom.’

  ‘He has ruined his body.’

  ‘Don’t talk of him! He goes about destroying idols in temples!’

  ‘It’s impossible to know any more what he is up to and what he will do next.’

  15

  The buses arrived and left from their stands on schedule. The weather was clear, people’s faces were lit up and smiling. The driver of bus number 949 asked a shopkeeper, ‘Bhai, what’s going on here?’ Folding a betel leaf, the shopkeeper replied, ‘The toilet is going to be inaugurated today. The Councillor is coming to Ghevra.’

  A tent has been set up opposite G-block. The usually empty place was filling up with people. Many sit on chairs inside the tent.