[Reader-list] Republic Day Posting

[zainab at xtdnet.nl]

Today is Republic Day in India. So, WE have decided to put together a
posting. WE??? Well, WE includes me, myself, she and her. We are of a
multiple personality order you see. And as you well know by now, WE walk
together in the city.

This posting comes from a day of traveling in Delhi city. It was 18th
January. Preparations for the Republic Day were in full swing. I’d like to
thank my friend and colleague at Sarai, Rakesh, who allowed me to
experience the sites of his fieldwork in Delhi and produce this
experience. It was on his bike that I went through the city of Delhi and
realized that while our desire may be to construct strict borders and
boundaries, in cities these borders and boundaries are continuously
slipping away, recreating and reinventing themselves and perhaps, at some
level, spaces are conversing and traveling despite regimes and controls.
As the Chinese say, ‘we are living in interesting times’!

18 December 2004
It is 11:30 AM right now.  Winter is hard for me. Yet, when I sit on
Rakesh’s bike and start to experience the openness of the city, it seems
like the spirit of the city comes alive. I am talking with this spirit
right now. I don’t care if I am labeled haunted (perhaps I am a tantric
researcher!!!). But these are the most beautiful experiences of The
Everyday. I realize that each moment of The Everyday is diverse and
revealing. Do we love our cities or are they simply economic engines?

We are passing by Kashmere Gate area. I look at the spelling of Kashmere.
It’s still British. I think here in Delhi, our lives are under the shade
and shadow of the colonial past. And it’s difficult to shed this past.
Current transformations in Mumbai city make me feel like I am re-living
the era of the British – bureaucracy, force and power.

We are right below Kashmere Gate. The bike is halted owing to the red
signal. The metro is passing above, on the bridge. And, I suddenly feel
like standing up on the bike and saluting the metro. I want to sing:

Jana Gana Mana Adhi Nayak Jaye He
Mera Metro hai naya Vidhata!

It’s surreal. I am not a patriot. But I believe state projects can do this
to me. Bollywood sometimes manages to fool me like this, especially when I
am drunk on war music (and I am not of the warring factions either!). The
Delhi Metro is the idea of development. I remember the autorickshaw
driver’s words, “Now Delhi can compete on the international level.
Everything that the world has, we have here in Delhi!”

I enter Pallika Bazaar. Gitika, my interviewee from Mumbai who commutes
regularly through VT Station had told me, “I reminded of Pallika Bazaar
when I am in the VT Station subway.” So am I. I am coming to believe that
spaces can be Siamese Twins, so what if they are separated by borders and
labels. Our constructions of spaces can be similar though we may exist in
different corners of the world. Then, what is this intellectual property
regime? I can’t seem to understand.

As I walk through Pallika, I remember my experiences of walking in a
shopping center in Dhaka city. Seriously, my memories are in Dhaka and my
presence is in Delhi – the divides of the physical and the mental (or
should I say sentimental?). Will I be arrested for imaging Bangladesh in
Delhi? It seems police regimes are strict on Bangladeshis here. And now,
as slums are being razed to the grounds in Mumbai, Bal Thackeray supports
and praises the government’s moves saying, ‘the slums are dangerous
because they house Bangladeshis.’ The Bangladeshi has become the universal
(hated, despised and dangerous) ‘other’ in our metro cities. (And I think
I am being fooled simultaneously by politicians and the media.)

We again start our escapades on Rakesh’s bike. This time, I am looking at
the high-rises being constructed in the Connaught Place area. The
buildings are different. They are set against the backdrop of the sky. And
suddenly, I think I want to patent the sky. Will that make me a super-rich
dude?

The day is passing. And I am passing through this city’s streets, sights
and signs. I enter Lajpat Rai market. As I walk through it, I remember the
‘duplicate’ market I visited in Bangkok. All the maal there was fake or
Chinese made. Gosh, I am almost experiencing the cities of this world
right here, right now. Perhaps the Times of India advertising billboards
across Delhi’s light-posts were right when they said, ‘because India is
going all over the world!’ Do spaces talk? How come spaces remind of
similarities? Is it about the space or the sense of place?

It’s evening time. We decide to return home. This time I am passing
through Daryaganj and loudspeakers are blaring with songs from patriotic
films. Lata Mangeshkar is screaming, aye mere watan ke logon, jara aankhon
mein bhar lo pani. I think about aankhon mein bhar lo pani – water in the
eyes. I have water in my eyes. The pollution is severe. Do real issues
tend to get diluted or even disguised under the guise of patriotism and
nationalism? Is patriotism some kind of ‘opium of the masses’? Is
nationalism being constructed in our cities? Are the borders moving
inwards?

Postscript: Parveen Babi, the famous yesteryear actor of Bollywood died
some days ago. It is said that she was suffering from paranoid
schizophrenia. I think I am suffering from the same mania – I am
schizoidly paranoid of the state. I think it is poisoning my mind. Stay
away!



Zainab Bawa
Bombay
www.xanga.com/CityBytes