[Reader-list] Space, entitlements, contests

[zainab at xtdnet.nl]

Entitlements, Space and Contests
Incidents from Everyday Life in a City

Incident 1: I was sitting in the lobby of her office, waiting for her to
finish work and come out. She is my friend who works at Nariman Point. As
I was sitting, my eyes fell upon a newspaper. This was a neighbourhood
newspaper, the kinds which are now being generated on a large scale in
various neighbourhoods across the city, highlighting civic issues,
inefficiencies of the municipality and a call to residents towards active
citizenship. The cover story of this newspaper addressed the concerns of
First Class Commuters on Bombay’s local trains. The article detailed how
beggars, vagrants and drug addicts occupy the first class ladies’
compartments at nights and during the non-rush hours of the daytime. Women
are subsequently intimidated and they would rather travel in the first
class men’s compartments or in the second class ladies’ compartments.
Women commuters were evidently upset and those who spoke to the writer to
this story mentioned how there is no point in purchasing first class
passes (which cost about eight times more than the second class passes)
when beggars and vagrants get to enjoy the luxuries. One college girl even
stated that prostitutes use the first class compartments at night to
solicit customers. Women were upset with the cops who are usually not on
patrol (as reported) in the first class ladies compartments. They were
also upset with school children who travel on second classes passes in the
first class compartments, simply because there is no ticket checking
officer to check on them and shoo them out of the first class
compartments. “It is these children who scribble graffiti on the first
class compartment walls and write lewd comments and remarks,” an upset
college-going girl had said.
Does it then make sense to purchase first class passes when somebody else,
undeservedly enjoys the privilege, the entitlements that come with the
purchase of a first class pass???


Incident 2: I know her as a Rajni. She is a lady Traveling Ticket Examiner
(TTE or TC). She is large, burly and intimidating. Apparently, girls
traveling ticketless, upon spotting her in the compartment, jump off the
moving train in order to avoid being caught by her. She tells me about her
work as we chat informally. “I usually ‘work’ in the first class
compartments. That’s where you get the people (and sometimes she refers to
the erring commuters as ‘customers’). We have to get hold of the women who
are traveling in the first class on second-class tickets because first
class travelers shout at us and complain. They feel they are entitled to
the luxuries of traveling in the first class when they have paid for it.”
I traveled with her on one occasion to watch her ‘work’ on the trains. She
is sharp. As we board trains, we quickly checks on tickets. Then we
randomly get off one station and board the next train. She watches women
with children and other female family members boarding the first class
compartments and she instantly warns them, “Ssssh, ssssh, this is first
class. Go into the second class.” I ask her how she is able to make out
which commuters are potentially first class commuters and which ones
second class. “You can make out by their capacity. Haisiyat ho sakti hai
kya inki?” she says as a matter of fact, adding, “When I warn them like
this and they go away, it is fine. But if they enter the compartment
despite my warning, I catch them.”
During our journey, Rajini got hold of one girl who was traveling on
second class ticket in the first class. The girl mentioned that she
boarded the first class because she was in a hurry and did not see that
this was a first class compartment. Rajni says she has heard this excuse
several times and she is in no mood to let the girl go off. On another
occasion, Rajni gets hold of a railways’ sweeper woman who is traveling on
the first class with a second class pass. We go to the Station Masters’
office who in turn reprimands the sweeper lady, “Please don’t travel on
first class when the railways gives you a second class pass. Commuters
shout at us authorities in the railways, telling us that we don’t take
strict action against persons traveling first class on second class passes
and tickets. And I hate the media. They will take any opportunity to
report on us for all of this. Really, I hate the media.”


Incident 3: One day, I wrote my blog entry and stated how I believed that
residents of A, B, C and D roads of Marine Drive had privatized their
streets by clearing off the hawkers and installing private security
guards. On reading my entry, a young resident of D Road was upset and she
claimed that I write without understanding the issues involved. She stated
how her mother and she had protected the hawkers from the BMC vans by
giving them shelter in her home. However, when things got out of hand, the
step had to be taken. Some days ago, we met in person and I asked her to
explain the situation to me for I was missing out the perspective of
residents who had undertaken this move. What had caused them to do so? She
said, “Our street has about four licensed hawkers. But the problem is that
when one hawker comes, he brings ten others along with him. How can we
tolerate so many hawkers on our street? Besides, it is true that everybody
wants to eat cheap food but we as residents pay streets taxes and various
other taxes while the hawkers do business without paying any of the taxes
(perhaps implying the logic of the ‘tragedy of the commons’)? That’s not
fair nah?

Urban space – entitlements – contests – I am still grappling with
questions ...


Zainab Bawa
Bombay
www.xanga.com/CityBytes
http://crimsonfeet.recut.org/rubrique53.html