[Reader-list] @Delhi.net

[zainab at xtdnet.nl]

11 January, 2005

Standards and Standardization
Images and Notions of Development!!!

It is too bad to be too thoughtful. I can’t seem to get my mind off the
city, the urban and all the everyday experiences. I can conveniently blame
all of this to traveling – heck, I can’t seem to be able to stop myself
from traveling through the city, people’s minds and through my own mind!
Now, now, I know that I am a self-indulgent researcher and I need to stop
talking about myself. So let’s talk city!

@ Delhi.net!
These are days of winter in Delhi, days of cold and mist, fog, and some
warm sunshine in between. I have been traveling in the city’s
autorickshaws and DTC buses. And I realize that publics can be created
anytime, just as much as spaces can be created anywhere, anytime. Last
evening, Solly and me went traveling from the North of the city to the
South. A Sardar autorickshaw driver stated his opinions about the Delhi
Metro. And I love the way in which the state government is selling the
metro to the people through advertisement hoardings which state ‘Delhi
Metro, Mera Metro’ i.e. ‘Delhi Metro, My Metro’. Now, now, I realize that
the government is also into the age of customizing – custom-made services
for individual customers. Now, now, I’m confused – am I a customer or a
citizen? Gosh, utter confusion!

Sardarji, as he drove the autorickshaw spoke of the metro: “Badhiya,
really good! Have you seen the metro? It runs at the speed of 300kms. It’s
Japanese investment and technology. This, here, is the over-ground metro
till ISBT bus stand and then, there, is the underground metro running from
ISBT bus stand to Delhi University. The station for the underground one is
in the process of construction. I have traveled in the metro, twice.” As
Sardarji speaks, I think of urban spectacles and individual curiosities.
This auto driver was curious enough to check out the metro.
This afternoon, while returning from South to the North, another UPite
auto driver speaks to me, “Have you seen the metro? Check out the
stations! They are grand! They have lots of things in them i.e. shops and
brands. The supply for the metro comes from further up north. Supply means
labour. The metro is amazing. You cannot escape without buying a ticket.
Very difficult to travel ticket-less. You know why? Because when you enter
the station, you get a token which helps you open the door. Now, the door
will not open without the token. If you happen to punch the token
upside-down, then too the door will not open. So you see, you cannot
travel ticket-less on the metro!”

Sardarji last night refused to drive us down South. “I lose my way in the
nights. I drive around in this region, here in the north. Delhi is being
transformed. Badhiya hai!”
Auto driver this afternoon states his opinion, “The world is now going to
face competition from Delhi. See what wonderful things they are building
here in Delhi. Badhiya, badhiya! Now you need not go to bidesh (foreign,
abroad). Everything is right here!”

I start to imagine and wonder. Urbanites or call us city dwellers, have
various ways of constructing imaginations. And I believe we have several
images which help us to build our imaginations and reinforce them into
beliefs. Perhaps such are beliefs about the city and notions of
development. And what is curiously amazing is that neither Sardarji nor
the afternoon autorickshaw driver has been to foreign! Sardarji in fact
rarely ventures out of his northern Delhi territory. So how does the
international get communicated to them, within their own urban spaces and
spaces of existence and employment? I believe it is the media, the media
which is now producing imaginations of the ‘foreign urban!’, the desire
that we in this land of India, will create urban spectacles and wow the
world! And maybe it is this colonial inferiority which implicitly leads us
to act this way, each metro city suffering from complex or another.
Then I think of another urban flow which cannot be discounted. And this is
the flow of the desis from bidesh, the NRIs coming back to India. And as
this flow increases, the images and beliefs of what constitutes
development become stronger. It’s amazing nah, how flows take place in the
urban – the desis from bidesh coming back to their lands and the
government of Maharashtra (which can also be called Government of Mumbai)
throwing out the slum dwellers and the encroachers who are now going back
to their gaons/villages. Perhaps this is what might be “Operation Clearing
– Making Space for our Prodigal Sons!”

Now you may ask me why I talk about standards. I take off from December,
the day I read through the Chief Minister’s Task Force Report on
“Transforming Mumbai into a World Class City”. Now, Master Chef presents:

The Ingredients which go into the Making of a World Class City:
·	A Metro Rail or Sky Train will also do (available in Shanghai/Singapore.
For desi version, try mera metro from Delhi.)
·	Concreted Roads
·	Supermarkets, malls and multiplexes: these you can try in individual
proportions or mix them all together which will, in turn, enable you to
create the ‘Ideal Family Weekend’
·	Tiled Pavements and Street Furniture – we are decorating the public
domain for pedestrians. No pavement dwellers here please 

·	You can also throw in, for garnishing and flavor, signs indicating
“Caution” or “Prohibited”, here and there, everywhere!
I guess that should be it nah! Oh no, please note, in order to prepare a
world class city, you must start on a clean plate which means all the dirt
must either be cleared up or shoved off to a place where it is no longer
visible.
These are standards which we operate with to create urban spectacles,
spectacular spectacles. And standards are defined through popular imagery.
The current standards are those of a ‘world-class city’.
Now, enough of rambling for today 




Zainab Bawa
Bombay
www.xanga.com/CityBytes