'Common' wealth

Delhi has the largest number of ruins in a single city, after Rome. With the Commonwealth Games preparations, however, we may have usurped first place!

Today, Delhi resembles a war zone. Attacks on the city’s landscape have revealed both its underbelly and the endemic failure of the bodies that are meant to govern it. Both issues are related and neither is new; they have, unfortunately, given rise to a wave of new cynics, who have joined the old ones with almost imperceptible nods and shrugs. The cynics surrender to acceptance of this ‘reality’.

But this cynicism is dangerous, because it combines pessimism with a false sense of belief. Allegations of corruption may cause heads to roll and fingers to point in political directions, but most Delhiites believe that the angry media bytes will dissipate along with the fireworks of the opening ceremony.

It is not apathy but faith in jugaad that brings a few rays of sunshine to even the most negative minds. Jugaad is a concept that makes us a world leader in innovation. Thanks to jugaad, we believe that no issue is beyond resolution. This makes us omnipotent and impotent at the same time.

What I wonder is why jugaad is post facto and not pre-emptive, at least in design? Why do we formulate the questions only after we find the answers staring us in the face? Have we become so good with working with ‘givens’ that we are unable to discern why they exist?

Take for example the common ailment of perpetually dug up and re-laid pavements. This is done by various agencies at different times, because of a supposed lack of communication — in the age of the mobile phone! Our streets are today a laboratory of debatable aesthetics, being constantly re-paved, for unfathomable reasons, in a variety of materials and patterns, while our taxes line the pockets of ‘empanelled’ contractors.

We are so distracted by this tangled process that we forget to question the role of the pavement — to make the city pedestrian-friendly! Perhaps what might work is a network of large concrete conduits, square in cross-section, sunk into the ground to act as veins for all infrastructure services — present and future. The tops of such conduits, at ground level, would then allow pedestrian movement. These large corridors should never need to be dug up, would be easily accessed and the savings could be deployed to weather-shield the sidewalks and their users.

Practical answers to urban issues arise from common sense. The implementation comes later, and in itself involves a series of steps. In confusing the two, we come to depend on jugaad. We fail to understand that raising ad hoc walls to build a house, without a plan — however expensive or beautiful the building material — will result in rooms that don’t work and a roof that will not align.

While Delhi reels beneath a barrage of verbal and physical abuse for the next two months, its dismembered parts will be crudely stitched together and skilfully dressed up to last through the Commonwealth Games. The question here is not what happens when the seams fall apart, but what should happen before we start cutting the cloth?

Thus the need for participatory processes which involve the public in decision-making and design. Even though our numbers are daunting, there exist examples and methodologies, and even niche firms, to help us organise and streamline processes for entire urban sectors, neighbourhoods and wards. Forums can be established to ask questions, however futile, to bang on doors, however impenetrable, to determine reason before action and not to reason with action.

The collective resources of a city’s citizens would not only grow creative, indigenous solutions for our cities but would also be backed by a sense of civic responsibility and accountability. Even though one raised finger will point at the government, four will point straight back at us!

Suparna Bhalla is a Delhi-based architect