Monday, October 23, 2006

dharavi (is it really too ugly to be removed)

i am an architecture student doing a project work on dharavi because i wanted to learn something real happening around me.

while reading books and visiting dharavi, i realized the problem dharavi creates is too big for grid line mechanized system of city. since its a controversy to a dream of everything fine and systematic in a city so major part of city seems to discard it as part. but numerous questions evoked in my head.
like dharavi and its system and reason of working in such a oraganic and haphazard is really wrong?
This city belongs to whome? why cities are made?
what kind of people are supposed to live in them?
what is beauty of city?
is city a living organism like we are for some other creature dependent on each other for food chain atleast.
who really makes the rules in the city. or rules are made by some mechanized system of viewing what is considered good?
are we trapped in frames of rules what we call system? is it ok to call it bad? or its good ?

these questions came into existence when i simply asked the question of a slum.

i am still confused here, like do i really want to criticize what goverment has in store for dharavi. but is there any example where government has proved that they can do something called good decision making( i am biased here, by good decision making means to me is something which is humane and thinking seriously about upgrading lives of urban poor residing in the city).

isnt the government policies responsible for such a huge number of urban poor living in slums. if they themselves now trying to evolve their lives by putting some industries which now create turnover of about rs. 20 billion. then why government havent given them basic amneties to clean their dirt and make their lives little bit better and respectable like rest of city.
what was government intention or it was indicisive state of government like all time?

what if again government take short term pill of resettlement of these poor giving them less in return than what they had before something re................

what NGO's are doing. are they really teaching people to think or teaching them what is right? what if NGO's emelves dont know that what they are doing is in wrong direction?

who is deciding policies of this collective network? who is diciding framework or reference of action?
what court is doing except waking up when we question its superiority in democratic system.
what court explanation is ?

where are architects of city? dont they themselves see involved in this problem? dont they find themselves culprit in this issue as a planning community?

i dont have answers of all these questions but i m in quest to find it out. may be i'll be get somewhere with all these at some point of time. but mainly i intended to evolve a dialogue between concerned people. may be collectively we may reach at some conclusion.