[Reader-list] A Month of Travel: Viewing the City

[Zainab Bawa]

4-6 October 2004
Mumbai-Howrah Mail via Nagpur and via the road border to Bangladesh


This month I am a traveler. As you have already seen, I am transferring 
myself from Mumbai to Bangladesh in the span of the next three night and two 
days. But what makes this journey interesting is the fact that I seem to 
better understand my own city when I am away from it. I can see the 
transitions and transformations in Mumbai with greater clarity when I am in 
another place.

I began my journey on the night of October 4. A co-passenger, heading 
towards Bhandara, was talking to me. He was telling me about his experiences 
in the local trains of Mumbai in is day-long visit to the city. While the 
crowds seemed to have shocked him, he was also in awe of the world that 
exists within the realm of the compartment. When the train halted at Dadar, 
a marketing executive in an international medical company got in. He was 
headed for Nagpur and he also began to recount his experiences in the local 
train in the morning of day long visit to the city. “It’s crazy here! There 
is no life in Mumbai. I think Delhi is at least better in this respect. In 
Mumbai, people are just rushing. No time for family, no nothing. If there is 
one day of holiday, then the family wants to go to a multiplex theater which 
means two to two and a half thousand rupees worth of expenditure. I am so 
glad that there is no multiplex theater in Nagpur. If there would have been 
one and my wife would have demanded that I take her there, it would have 
meant a deep hole in my pocket!”
Both individuals spoke of their early morning train rides to their workplace 
destinations. The Bhandara chap was an engineer. He said, “My goodness, what 
things they sell inside the train. Today I saw that the hawkers were selling 
a torch which helps you to detect a fake currency note from the original and 
the best part was that people were buying. Then, I was waiting at Ghatkopar 
railway station and I saw that people were crossing the railway tracks 
inspite of the overhead bridges. I cannot dare to this.” The Nagpur 
marketing executive was not at all impressed and he said, “I think this is 
crazy. Look at the amount of people on a railway station. I think Thackeray 
is right when he says throw out all the migrants from the city. Clearly, 
there seem to be too many migrants in here.” But the Bhandara chap insisted, 
“However terrible, it is worth the experience to travel in a local train. At 
least you must go through it once.”

I am stating the above conversation with the aim to communicate perspectives 
to you – how people from outside Mumbai see the city. Also, the chat between 
the two of them reveals subtly notions of heritage in a city. Definitely, 
the local train is an important lived heritage of Mumbai.

This month, we shall take a look at Khulna City in Bangladesh. Khulna is a 
‘developing’ city. Usually, the mention of Bangladesh brings to mind the 
immediate and spontaneous association of Dhaka. But I will move a bit from 
the immediacy and spontaneity and deviate from the norm.

Before we delve into Khulna, let’s briefly look at last month’s work and 
summarize some of the main observations and analyses:

•	The Railway Station is now becoming a site for surveillance and policing 
in addition to transport of workforce and goods, and facilitating movement 
across the city. In one of the developments towards the end of September, 
the railway police have introduced Sniffer Dogs and Equipment to check 
luggage and passengers at VT’s outstation railway platforms. The purpose 
behind this move is to detect narcotics and explosives if any. Seems like 
one of the unintended (aka delayed) effects of September 11!
•	The Seafront in Mumbai has definitely seen an important change i.e. 
removal of hawkers from the overall experience of time on the seafront. They 
have now been relegated to some distant, remote corner. They are also under 
strict surveillance, especially at Nariman Point. At one point in time, a 
family visit to the seafront would be a sort of picnic and hawkers would 
form an essential part of that experience of picnic. Today, while hawkers 
are out of the picnic experience, at some level, digital cameras and 
video-cameras are becoming part of the ‘visit and picnic’ experience.
•	The seafront is an important space for senior citizens in the city. It 
allows them the luxury to congregate with their community and socialize.
•	Jogging is a multifarious activity with different connotations including 
social, sexual (in terms of image), economic (meaning makes business sense 
to jog), health and personal and political (because usually personal 
politics are discussed and deliberated upon while jogging. For instance, a 
group of married women jogging would discuss family politics. Two office 
colleagues jogging would mean talks about office politics, etc.).
•	Time spent on the seafront is individual time and individual space even 
amidst crowds. This is what makes the sea face a special location in the 
city – it affords anonymity while at the same time, it is an experience of 
community where the individual is not alone in his/her contemplations, 
reflections and explorations because there are others around him/her too.
•	Anonymity is also a feature of the railway station. Both at Churchgate and 
VT, the transitions are quick. Therefore, visibility is either absent or 
temporary at a railway station. Whether this principle of “transient 
visibility” applies to the advertisement boards and hoardings at the railway 
stations in addition to human beings is an investigation I shall attempt to 
conduct in November.
•	Railway stations are receiving gradual facelifts to fit the bill of 
‘global city development’ or what our planners and bureaucrats call ‘the 
Shanghai model’. Mini television screens is one such introduction in the 
subway market of Churchgate. While these facelifts take place, some things 
indigenous still retain their place and relevance. For e.g. the original UP 
pani-puri and bhel-puri shop owner in the Churchgate subway market. It is 
this fusion/imposition/superimposition which makes for interesting study and 
raises questions about history, locality, future development and the global 
city model.


I will now make a very brief description of Khulna City and how its study 
makes for important in terms of the work I am conducting in Mumbai. Like I 
mentioned above, Khulna is a ‘developing’ city which means shopping malls 
are gradually coming up here and multinational corporations are establishing 
their presence and space. This is my second visit to Khulna. The last time I 
was here (which was more than a year ago), Khulna appeared more like a town 
to me. Its special feature is the existence of Khulna University which then 
makes this a student city, somewhat along the lines of Pune.

Time and space are different practices here. The seafront in Khulna is known 
as the ‘Ferry Ghat’ which is more of a commercial hub than a space for 
recreation and outing. Similarly, the railway station is meant for 
inter-city transport and not for local purposes. The local mode of transport 
is the cycle rickshaw and the ‘bhen’. What’s a bhen? In simple terms, a bhen 
resembles the hawker’s four wheel flat cart i.e. with a wooden plank and 
four wheels which help in ferrying. The difference in the case of the bhen 
and the hawker’s cart is in terms of design and degree i.e. the bhen has a 
three-wheel cycle with a wooden plank on it. At one time, about six people 
can be ferried on a bhen. It is a kind of community transport vehicle, say 
along the lines of a public bus where people get on and off at different 
points of the journey. The cycle rickshaw is more individual in contrast. 
There is also the auto-rickshaw which is known as ‘baby taxi’. Baby taxi is 
meant for long distance transport and is rarely used.

Khulna city is linear. It has certain locations which have their respective 
practices of time and space. Let me attempt to put forward a few here. The 
first is the New Market which is a market complex for shopping, snacks and 
outing. Every city and town in Bangladesh has a New Market which is closed 
every Tuesday. In New Market, people conduct window shopping which is 
usually a leisure activity universally. Thus, time acquires a different 
notion here.
Then there is the Bodo Bazaar which is a wholesale market for meat, 
vegetables, fruits and household items including utensils and low-cost 
furniture. It is mighty crowded and is a site of quick transitions – this 
means that you shop, and move forward quickly. Else, you shall be pushed 
away or aside. It somehow reminds me of the railway station in Mumbai – 
space crunch produces faster transitions in terms of movement, is it? Bodo 
Bazaar also has its share of technology shops including photo studios some 
of which have latest technology in them. There is a huge commercial tower 
like complex here known as Jalil Towers where computer equipment and all 
kinds of software and hardware can be procured.  Picture Palace, the city’s 
only cinema hall is located in Bodo Bazaar. It is said that all kinds of 
vulgar Bengali films are shown in here.
Then there is the Nirala Mod which means Nirala residential complex market 
converging point. (Mod is a Hindi term for something like a point where 
things and places converge.) Nirala Mod is again a multifarious place which 
means that it has a wholesale vegetable and meat market known as Kaccha 
Bazaar in the vicinity. It also has quite a few shops where stationery items 
are sold, the reason being that the Mod is close to the University and 
hence, the students are the main buyers around here. The Mod also has 
several kinds of eateries, again because students from the University 
frequent here. The Mod has its own unique pace. It is neither too rushed, 
nor too easy. The Mod is also a site for transport. It is here where buses 
head towards the Gullamari bridge where the main bus stand is situated. One 
can also see the University bus running along here. The University bus is 
meant for students of the University. One has to simply say ‘Baarsity’ and 
get on the bus. Else, say ‘Chhatro” which means student and you are assured 
a free ride.

I shall end here. What makes Khulna an interesting place for study is its 
now rapidly changing practices of time and space given that it is 
‘developing’. The developments are rather rapid. Two shopping malls in the 
space of one year’s time, including introduction of huge advertising boards 
at Moila Putta Mod and various international electronic and technology 
showrooms including Sony and others have begun to change the character of 
this town cum city. People are beginning to move out, not just into sphere 
of the global market through the shopping malls, but also out of the 
socially established practices and customs of family and community.

More laters!!!

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