[Reader-list] Women and their Spatial Narratives in the City of Ahmedabad

Mon May 2 16:12:30 IST 2005

Women and their Spatial Narratives in the City of Ahmedabad

I present some case studies here. Now I am trying to complete the questionnaire work by speaking with some Muslim women. I want to interview some city planners and policy makers. I will also like to take a broader view by travelling around the city and collecting data through photographs.

Kalyani Navinchandra Dave is a 54 years old housewife. She lives in a two-bed room apartment in the western side of Ahmedabad. She says she is lucky to have this place that they bought after selling their ancestral property shared by four brothers. But she finds it increasingly hard to pay Rs. 900/- per month maintenance cost. She does sewing as part time work to help in the household expenses. Her husband is a liftman in a building. They belong to the middle class and are always conscious of showing that they live a comfortable life by hiding their hardships from people. Both of them have not studied beyond metric (11th standard). She has two daughters: one got married recently.

Kalyani was the eldest daughter in her natal family. She has been supporting her parents since she was 13 years old, first through housework and then by working in a college before marriage. She says her whole attitude to life has changed after she got married due to continuous economic problems. She says she used to be bold and could go any where on her own in the city. But now she has no confidence about traveling alone and remains mostly house bound. Once a month she may go to the 'city' to buy a few things like clothes. Her father is alive and she goes to see him once a week or once in ten days. There is hardly any other socialization except with neighbors in her apartment building. She really looks forward to weddings in the family when she gets to go out of town. For her rest itself is relaxation, it is so rare.

She never learnt how to ride a bicycle and so cannot drive a moped that her husband has. He does most of the buying of daily vegetables and grocery. She does not know banking and has no account of her own. Kalyani says the city bus service is really bad for women. When they are free from housework in the afternoon and try to use the service, the bus frequencies are also highly reduced. And of course, the rikshaws are very expensive. She has not been to a cinema hall in 9 years. She does not go to any gardens or restaurants. The family may eat from a roadside stall once in three months. While her daughters were growing up, she constantly worried about their safety and would not let them go anywhere alone even in daytime except to school or to tuition classes.

Jigna Shah is a 37 year-old divorcee. She has one daughter from the marriage and both of them live with her parents and brother's family in a two-bedroom apartment. After her divorce, she decided to learn a skill and to support herself. She took training in a beauty saloon in the city and now, for the past 5 years, she has been running her business by providing services in her clients' homes. She has her own old moped to get around, that often gives her problems but it is essential for her. She has also recently bought a mobile phone.

Jigna wakes up early to help in the kitchen work before setting out on her appointments. She says that as a single parent she has to juggle her schedule to be at home when her daughter returns from school. Her mother also helps in looking after her daughter when she is away. Her father or brother does the daily shopping as they both have vehicles. Jigna has not much time or energy to socialize with friends. Mostly she goes out, apart from her work, to relatives' houses if any one is sick or if there is an engagement or a wedding. She has 3 close friends, unlike many other women; however, she meets them once in six months. She has her own bank account and operates it herself. 

In spite of riding a two-wheeler, she says she hardly goes out for pleasure. She used to take her daughter to the garden when she was young but now she prefers to go to sleep due to exhaustion at night. She has seen the Kankaria Lake, Hutheesing Temple and the Gandhi Ashram but not the Jumma Mosque. She identifies traffic and pollution as major problems in the city of Ahmedabad.

Sushila Pravinbhai Patel is 51 years old. She is already a grand mother. She is pale, thin and always seems to have a slight frown on her face. She lives on the upper floor of her husband's ancestral home in a housing society, which she says is a total blessing in her life, among all the economic hardships. She has studied up to the 10th standard and was married at 18. She has four children: first three daughters and then a son. Two of her daughters were also married before the age of 20 years. 

Pravin had a comfortable job in a textile mill when they got married but then the mill closed down like so many others in the city of Ahmedabad in the 1980s. He went to work in a factory for a while but lost that job also. Now she says he cannot find employment at his age and he is trying to get by assembling tube lights and selling them door-to-door. He has a scooter to go around.

In Sushila's case Pravin does most of the shopping because he is mobile and they prefer to buy vegetables and grocery from the inner city's wholesale market. Her brothers gift her the clothes for all members of her family. She herself goes out once a week to get wheat grounded into flour in the neighborhood. She does not ride any vehicle and uses the bus system. She says she keeps the going out in the city at a minimum because it costs. Earlier she used to go out with her husband occasionally but now that is very rarely because petrol has become very expensive. She has never been to a cinema nor seen the Gandhi Ashram or the ISKON temple in the city.

Sushila's youngest daughter Ami has a job and knows her way around the city. Ami or her father handles the banking in the family. Five or six times a year she has to go to her native town for social occasions. Her daughter has managed to send them on an all India pilgrimage tour. Sushila is extremely proud to tell me. She is surprised when I ask her what would she like to do if her Sunday was totally free of all the responsibilities. "Why, I would not be comfortable without work!"

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