Anagha Speaks

Very recently, I wrote a longish article for a Swedish publication titled as 'Celebrating Informality in Indian Cities'. The point that I have made in this piece is that the 'informal' in our cities are often regarded as 'unplanned', 'illegal' and 'encroaching', yet they continue to serve a very essential function of creating multi-functionality in urban space. For example, a road become a vegetable market in the morning, a streetside eatery in the evenings, while serving as a carriage way during the day. Every festival season, the road sides are converted into makeshift pandals that showcase rare creative talents like moving mythological scenes. While all this plays havoc with the ideals of conservative urban planning,  I have asked the question - Why Not? Why are we modern, Indian urban planners actually planning for these creative informal inputs. Recently I read an interesting article by Oli Mould (http://globalurbanist.com/2012/05/22/temp...

In February 2012, all the municipal corporations in Maharashtra underwent an overhaul in their respective local urban / municipal governments. The city level elections saw a flurry of projects in the city of Pune. Suddenly, the half done pending-for-long road projects saw completion. The project of constructing canal culverts that were pending since the past 1.5 years suddenly, as if with the wave of a magic wand, were completed in 1 month flat. Further, the incumbent nagarsevak , when he visited the housing societies, promised more gardens, better roads, good water supply and clean streets to the hassled citizens, who deal with these issues everyday 24x7. In localities where slums were dominant, the aspiring nagarsevaks , went so far as to promise free dwellings, 24x7 piped water to all slum dwellers. In areas, where the transport was inadequate, promises were to add bus routes. In areas were roads were congested, promises were to build wider and better roads, even flyovers. The on...

The Economic Times in October 2011 carried a very intriguing article on 'Geo Engineering', which I have been unable to put out of my mind for the past few weeks. After reading the article, I felt the arguments that we all are making to fight Climate Change may very well change their context in face of the various proposed Geo Engineering techniques that can be applied for cooling Mother Earth! Scientists are currently working on such techniques that will ensure that we keep away the 'heating' solar radiation from reaching the earth. Techniques like installing mirrors in the space to reflect solar radiation or seeding the upper stratosphere with sulphate aerosols or simply salt water to reflect the sun's radiations back into space. Further, other techniques that will ensure more absorption of carbon dioxide by trees and oceans are being proposed and tested for results. Some of these include infusing the oceans with calcium hydroxide so that they can take in more a...

Last week a small article had appeared in the Times of India on a very unique idea - The Slow City Movement. (to read more http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/Big-idea-for-small-towns/articleshow/10373055.cms). This article has prompted this Blog post and I wish to introduce this possibility for all of us think about "slowing down". The Fast Food movement that is seen across the world is countered by proponents of a Slow Food Movement. The ready-to-cook, processed Fast Food is found to create many health problems, including obesity and Diabetes, even in young children. The Slow Food Movement, on the other hand, promotes food that is cooked over a period of time, retaining the nutrition and taste of the ingredients, while giving the eater a sense of satisfaction and fullfilment. The Slow City Movement is such an unique concept that enlarges the philosophy of Slow Food to communities and towns, essentially talking about the Quality of Life and...

Ganesh utsav is just over and streets are in the process of regaining the sanity (?) that they had prior to the festival in Pune. Last week, everyone (that is, every middle class person who drives a car), was talking about the inconvenience of the streets - the large pandals, the distracting banners and generally an atmosphere where groups of people were together on the streets. The result was obviously, traffic jams, delayed travel times and generally high level of frustration! Despite tha above, I cctually feel that the ability of Indian cities to 'multi' use its streets is amazing. The conversion of streetscapes from plain to festive, overnight, is something that amazes most people abroad. The informality of the use of our streets, or their 'adaptability', is something most cities in the West try and fail, while we have it here in our Indian cities. Of course, you will argue that conversion of streets is fun, but what about the traffic jams! But I will counter arg...

A very apt and relevant perspective was shared by a scientific friend of mine on the blog that I posted yesterday – about Indian Women, Stress and Indian Cities! Due to the typical science research limitations, this research may not find scientific publication, but will shed some light on why Indian Women are found to be the most stressed in the world! Of course, my friend also acknowledges the perspective that our physical space and its ‘ill design’ adds to the stress, but he contends that the reason for Stress is in our Genes! In a nutshell, this is what he writes and I rephrase (for easy understanding) and also quote some of his theories based on genetic testing of Indian women: In us, there is something called as Serotonin (Say-Row-Tow-nin), a neurotransmitter, which basically carries messages from the source to the brain. Now, why are we suddenly talking about Serotonin, you will ask? The simple reason is that the Serotonin system is respo...

I recently read an interesting study article published by CNN sent to me by a Belgian friend, who, unfortunately, happened to meet me in Pune at my busiest time of the year! All through our lunch together, I was either receiving calls, responding to calls or furiously writing emails on my Blackberry. And when he found this article on Indian women, stress and their time commitments, he immediately forwarded it to me. Here is the article in a nutshell: " (CNN) - A recent study released by the Nielsen Company that examines the consumer and media habits of women in emerging and developed countries has found that women in India are the most stressed. The Women of Tomorrow Study, which examined 6,500 women across 21 different nations from February through April 2011, found that an overwhelming 87% of Indian women said they felt stressed most of the time, with 82% claiming they had no time to relax. Indian women are not alone. The vast majority of Mexican (74%) and Russian (69%) w...