[Reader-list] Reaching Nangla, Today (05)

[CM@Nangla]

Nanglamachi, Wednesday, March 29th 2006


How do I begin to write about today? I have hardly begun to absorb it. When
we were leaving the compughar at 4 this evening, Prabhat, while locking the
familiar green door said, so we have seen this too. In my 13 years I have
not witnessed something like this. I had nothing to say. Neither had I.

The compughar was emptied in the course of the day. The computers,
furniture, lights, fans, files, negatives, cassettes, boards, were moved.
They were loaded onto a tempo that was standing with many others on Outer
Ring Road. Traffic was heavy on Outer Ring Road as usual. Except today, it
was much slower. To those passing by and going towards Nizamuddin Bridge,
it seemed like the settlement on the left, was spilling onto the streets
today. Strange. The settlement had become part of the scenery. And like the
scenery, it was not supposed to be spilling onto the street. Along with the
tempos, there were truckloads of policemen in riot gear. Those cane shields
they hold always remind me of garden chairs. Maybe that’s what they are.
And the padding on the khaki slip-on half robes is so thin that they look
like they’re in line for haircuts. Sadly police presence looks like
police presence, and it is enough to make thousands and thousands of people
do what they want them to do.

In phases. First the shops would go. Then the structures on the outer
edges. Then the homes that had a painted sign that said NDS – No
Documents, and finally the ones that said P98 – post 98. All on different
days starting from today.

The Peepal tree that patterned the light coming into the lab has a way of
seeming omnipresent. Today I saw that it was. Looking up from the roof of
the lab that is also the 1st floor people’s terrace, the Peepal tree
spread into the sky for miles. On the other side was a three storied
structure that was being broken in parts by the people who lived there. The
funny thing was that everything was so noiseless. If I hadn’t followed
the hand movements of the two men who were hammering the wall of the house,
I wouldn’t have registered it. I had the MD headphones on for a while
sitting up there, and the loudest sound was of the birds. I believe they
were on that tree.

There had been a wedding this morning in the adjoining lane. There are two
more to go. One tomorrow and one the day after. The dholaks and the
sequined pink and red outfits on the children playing on the video game
consoles that were now outside, made me wonder how different it might have
been yesterday. Not that much.

On one of the main roads of the basti, that also leads to the edge of the
Yamuna, there was a sea of things. Inside out upside down and waiting to
move in the direction of Outer Ring Road into tempos that would scatter
them into a headless city. For now they formed patches of shade. Walking
alongside took much longer than usual not only because they came in the way
of covering ground. There was no longer a self contained line between
inside and outside. And perhaps boundaries have something to do with the
speed with which one maneuvers different terrains.
I don’t know.

Blur.
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Priya



CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi

http://nangla.freeflux.net
http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net

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It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, 
Such is Nangla,
It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, 
Such is Nangla. 
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