Undercurrents #1 : Searching for the edge
26th February, 8pm
Windy Hall Lane, Colaba, Mumbai
I’m on my way home from the local grocery store. I’m carrying a shopping bag full of basic supplies — milk, bread, juice, bananas. I turn the corner into the street I’m temporarily calling home. I say hello to the kids playing cricket. I smile at my favourite Dhobi wallah (our local laundry). Our road is a dead end, you see the same people every day.
Just ahead I see three people I don’t recognise, huddled around a glowing screen. I have to walk past them to get to the flat. I pass, the tall, beardy guy in wide, loose fitting harem pants turns to face me.
“Excuse me” he says in a thick French accent
“Yes” I say
“How do we get to the sea front?”
“You can’t” I respond.
They look confused. They hold up the phone to me to show me their evidence, the map their using to guide their way. It’s true we are only 50 meters to the left, no more than 200 meters to the right from Mumbai’s waterside.
I’ve tried to access the city’s coastline many times myself. I’ve often felt like I’m in the Truman show — searching for the edge. Getting closer with every twist and turn, but rarely ever making it.
I have to tell them how it is:
“Most of the cities sea front it closed off. Private residencies, military restricted areas and stuff. There’s hardly any publicly accessible coast even though Mumbai is surrounded by sea.”
There’s a collective sigh. The three of them look exasperated.
“But we just want to drink beer by the sea” the French man says, clinking the bottles in the black bag to his right, as if to make his case. The girl beside him shrugs her shoulders, shifts to the side. I can tell she’s had enough of India for the day.
I proceed to give them convoluted directions to the closest bit of coast you can get to at this time of night, a 25 minute walk away or a short taxi ride away.
end
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Cultural Undercurrents
What might this story tells us about the invisible forces at play in society?
·Mumbai is predominately surrounded by coast. The city was created from seven islands that have since morphed into one large conurbation and extending out with patches of reclaimed land from the sea. The majority of the coast is restricted to privately held land or private residencies, closed off to the public or owned by the military.
· Mumbai is a megacity home to +18million people. It is at the coal face of rapid urbanisation, so land and space is at a premium. There is a fear that any empty space will be colonised by flow of new migrants that move to the city every day.
· Public space is scarce and undervalued. Development plans and policies are disparate. Power lies in the hands of the real estate industry, not always working for the public's best interests.
· In lower Mumbai there are a handful of open & publicly accessible strips of coast. There are a few smaller pockets of accessible coast that I have found, but they too are normally rimmed with barbed wire.
· There are small number of community groups campaigning for more public access to the Mumbai’s coastline. There are countless visions and manifestos for for this, but as yet, few examples of this manifesting. Much hope is being place on the Mumbai Port re-developments which are as yet to be finalised.
