Living the High Life
For a couple of related reasons, the woman I was renting a room from asked me to move out. I'm keeping a more academic blog of my experiences/research here for GW's women's studies department, so I'll have an analysis of sorts about getting kicked out up there sometime soon and I'll provide the link here. So for now, I am staying with one of my classmates, Sanjay.
Here in the living room of Sanjay's parents' flat, I can sit at the computer and listen to the sounds of the Arabian Sea crashing against the rocky shore down below the 10th storey window in front of me. Gulls, pigeons, and other birds (sometimes with small fish in tow) are flying about and the grey sea recedes into the pale sky at a hazy, indistinguishable horizon. Life is good and luxurious here. Sanjay and I have spent the last two nights listening to music, meeting up with friends and classmates, drinking, playing video games, watching a documentary about 9/11, and other typical hanging out activities. Yesterday morning I woke up to fresh squeezed orange juice, fresh sliced papaya, and a tomato onion cheese omelette prepared by Juggernauth, the hired cook/servant. Today I woke up late (Sanjay is still sleeping) and Juggernauth brought me chai and toast topped with some sort of delicious vegetable paste, cheese, and beautifully delicate slices of green pepper. It was so pretty I almost didn't want to eat it (but it tasted as good as it looked). In other words, life is pretty good here.
Yesterday we spent the day with some of our classmates doing fieldwork for a group project we are involved in: it includes examining the impacts/implementation of a road-widening project in a part of Bombay near the national park and a small fishing lake. Despite the heat and stress, I really enjoyed walking along the road and construction, taking pictures and video of traffic, land use, intersections, environmental violations and the like. We have to obtain a copy of the city's Development Plan to analyze the land use designations as per the official plan and compare that to the actual on-the-ground activities. For example, the road has been built within 50 yards of the lake, whereas environmental laws require that nothing be built within 200 meters of any body of water. Furthermore, the road is built with storm water drains that deposit directly into the lake, meaning all the oils and pollution from the road will be swept directly into the lake. Other things to take into consideration are the traffic patterns along the road and the socioeconomic impact of the road in terms of fancy new shopping complexes and apartment buildings going up, along with pockets of slums in the area. Here in Bombay, you usually don't get one without the other: large construction projects and fancy developments necessitate, in a way, the development of slums. Those that live in the slums provide the labor and services necessary (although unnecessarily cheap, I would argue) for the construction and maintenance of the more affluent. "Slum Rehabilitation" has become a huge initiative here, with the encouragement of the World Bank and foreign consultants who have a lot invested in Bombay becoming "a world class city," whatever that means. This "rehabilitation" ranges from massive and massively violent slum demolitions (rendering most people homeless) to lining developers' pockets with tax-payer money to build high rises for slum dwellers who then end up renting the space out and returning to a slum somewhere else because a high rise flat is completely unconducive to their horizontally-aligned lifestyle. It's a complicated issue. 60% of Bombay's population lives in slums. I'm sure I'll come back to this topic in the future.
Meanwhile, today is the start of Diwali, perhaps the biggest Hindu festival. Known as the festival of lights, it reminds me of Christmas in the states (albeit, Christmas in Florida: October is the hottest month of the year here). The streets are packed with people shopping, and every building is adorned with "christmas" lights (I'll have to take some pictures for my mother to make up for the fact that I'll miss our annual family pilgrimage along the Tacky Lights Tour of Richmond). At night the air is punctuated by the insanely loud sounds of crackers and fireworks going off. Technically, the idea behind it is that firecrackers frighten off evil demons or something like that, but I've heard that as of tonight the city's air will be practically unbreathable due to all the smoke that will be created by crackers. A lot of people oppose the noise pollution as well. Also during Diwali people exchange sweets just like Christmas cookies. The festivities go on through Tuesday, so I'll hopefully have plenty of pictures of the festivities to share.
Here in the living room of Sanjay's parents' flat, I can sit at the computer and listen to the sounds of the Arabian Sea crashing against the rocky shore down below the 10th storey window in front of me. Gulls, pigeons, and other birds (sometimes with small fish in tow) are flying about and the grey sea recedes into the pale sky at a hazy, indistinguishable horizon. Life is good and luxurious here. Sanjay and I have spent the last two nights listening to music, meeting up with friends and classmates, drinking, playing video games, watching a documentary about 9/11, and other typical hanging out activities. Yesterday morning I woke up to fresh squeezed orange juice, fresh sliced papaya, and a tomato onion cheese omelette prepared by Juggernauth, the hired cook/servant. Today I woke up late (Sanjay is still sleeping) and Juggernauth brought me chai and toast topped with some sort of delicious vegetable paste, cheese, and beautifully delicate slices of green pepper. It was so pretty I almost didn't want to eat it (but it tasted as good as it looked). In other words, life is pretty good here.
Yesterday we spent the day with some of our classmates doing fieldwork for a group project we are involved in: it includes examining the impacts/implementation of a road-widening project in a part of Bombay near the national park and a small fishing lake. Despite the heat and stress, I really enjoyed walking along the road and construction, taking pictures and video of traffic, land use, intersections, environmental violations and the like. We have to obtain a copy of the city's Development Plan to analyze the land use designations as per the official plan and compare that to the actual on-the-ground activities. For example, the road has been built within 50 yards of the lake, whereas environmental laws require that nothing be built within 200 meters of any body of water. Furthermore, the road is built with storm water drains that deposit directly into the lake, meaning all the oils and pollution from the road will be swept directly into the lake. Other things to take into consideration are the traffic patterns along the road and the socioeconomic impact of the road in terms of fancy new shopping complexes and apartment buildings going up, along with pockets of slums in the area. Here in Bombay, you usually don't get one without the other: large construction projects and fancy developments necessitate, in a way, the development of slums. Those that live in the slums provide the labor and services necessary (although unnecessarily cheap, I would argue) for the construction and maintenance of the more affluent. "Slum Rehabilitation" has become a huge initiative here, with the encouragement of the World Bank and foreign consultants who have a lot invested in Bombay becoming "a world class city," whatever that means. This "rehabilitation" ranges from massive and massively violent slum demolitions (rendering most people homeless) to lining developers' pockets with tax-payer money to build high rises for slum dwellers who then end up renting the space out and returning to a slum somewhere else because a high rise flat is completely unconducive to their horizontally-aligned lifestyle. It's a complicated issue. 60% of Bombay's population lives in slums. I'm sure I'll come back to this topic in the future.
Meanwhile, today is the start of Diwali, perhaps the biggest Hindu festival. Known as the festival of lights, it reminds me of Christmas in the states (albeit, Christmas in Florida: October is the hottest month of the year here). The streets are packed with people shopping, and every building is adorned with "christmas" lights (I'll have to take some pictures for my mother to make up for the fact that I'll miss our annual family pilgrimage along the Tacky Lights Tour of Richmond). At night the air is punctuated by the insanely loud sounds of crackers and fireworks going off. Technically, the idea behind it is that firecrackers frighten off evil demons or something like that, but I've heard that as of tonight the city's air will be practically unbreathable due to all the smoke that will be created by crackers. A lot of people oppose the noise pollution as well. Also during Diwali people exchange sweets just like Christmas cookies. The festivities go on through Tuesday, so I'll hopefully have plenty of pictures of the festivities to share.