The Left Bank

Moving from the ordered, tree-linedavenues of Khel Gaon to the Jamuna-paar colony of Patparganj was not easy. Inpart because an address on the wrong side of the river does little to add tostatus. Back in the early ’90s, Patparganj —the societies not thevillage—had a small town feel, what my fellow residents described asexperiencing the frontier. The Maharajgunj border was next door. And since thecapital had still to be gifted its Assembly, civil amenities—power, water andsewerage—were scarce. The area, however, had a charm of its own. True, theconstant din of construction, mushrooming shanties, vendors crowding the nearinvisible roads, rickshaws and cows—most absent in one’s earlier life—wereaggravating but the easy availability of daily conveniences, basic street food,weekly haats and maids and presswalas in plenty was a compensation. We,the upwardly mobile middle classes, were pushed into close proximity with thecity’s underclass—the urban villagers whose lands had been taken over anddeveloped for our housing, the service providers residing in slums and onpavements, the labouring poor colonising all available spaces in their strugglefor survival. To the theory classes— media hacks, TV experts, ‘politicallycorrect’ radicals, many op-ed writers— it was a constant reminder of Indianreality. It forced us to humanise ourselves. We could call ourselves theresidents of the Left Bank.

IP Extension is currently experiencing a massive makeover. Our numbers count ina democracy. It helps, of course, that the chief minister’s son is the localMP. But more than that, it is the anticipation of the Commonwealth Games, theproposed Metro extension, not to forget the inauguration of the AkshardhamTemple that has pushed up property values in the neighbourhood and attractedcapital for upgrading infrastructure. As we get our parks and flyovers, mallsand multiplexes, we are ready to join the ranks of the privileged. Our time hascome. No longer will we have to describe ourselves as the ‘low infrastructure,high ID’ ghetto. 

The sanitising of the neighbourhood has come accompanied by the squeezing out ofthe underclass. But even as we debate the questionable merits of the demolitiondrives, episodically smirk at the humiliation of the rich and powerful,valourise the upholding of the law and praise the courts, there is littlediscussion of the chosen mode of cleansing the city. The breaking down of MG 1and MG 2 crowds the news, not so the uprooting of the slum and pavementdwellings, many painfully constructed over the years after regular genuflectionsto the political masters and haftas to the petty officialdom. And sincethey have been deemed illegal, and numbers count for little with courts, theyare also denied compensation or alternative sites.

Soon the IP Extension I moved into all those years ago will be a hazy memory. AsDelhi moves towards its goal of approximating Singapore, our Left Bank will jointhe ranks of Delhi’s more privileged colonies—gated and aseptic. Bereft ofsupport from the op-ed writers, our low-cost services are being squeezed out.And somewhere we are also losing a bit of our soul. 

This article originally appeared in Delhi City Limits, March15, 2006