Aspirations or Inspiration: The right to the city Sonali Praharaj, Fall 2015 CP 231.Final assignment The word ‘slums’ or ‘Informal settlements’ got introduced to me by the city of Mumbai. Within the city’s everyday chaos,

the ‘informal’ world often gets portrayed to be such a common sight for everyone- the residents, the commuters and

the tourists. On the contrary, I wouldn’t perceive it to be completely true. The boundaries between the formal world and

informal settlements are so blurred and indistinct - not merely because of the aesthetics of the place but also the social

structure is complexly interviewed within the city. It is practically impossible to draw a line between the formal and

informal- unless the monsoons arrive. That’s when perhaps the difference becomes more tangible, where the ‘informal’

world can be seen as a drape of ‘blue’ (referred to as plastic covers) from the sky and flooded with knee deep water on

the ground. There is quite an abyss between the literature available and the city's reality. In the spirit of academia,

much previous reading is prescribed. ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ becomes the visual point of reference. This is pretty obvious

when one encounters un-nuanced positions about slums or the role of real estate; Speculative theories coalesce into

New Urbanism projects, learnings from weekend immersions of Dharavi tours and catch-as-catch-can ethnography

informs the iterations of computer extrusions, where high rise developments (the only answer) are clothed with a garb

of Bollywood culture.

When the monsoons get over, thousands of tourists and students flock the lanes of ‘Dharavi and ‘Koliwada’, trying to

understand the lives of people here. Nothing interests’ student practitioners of architecture and urban design and their

mentor institutes more than change. The objective is always to make a city ‘more livable’. This is predicated on the

understanding of a city as it is as ‘less livable’. Sociology rather than technology is currently the driving force behind

change, and alternatives derived to conceptualize ‘better cities’ are the results of surveys and sampling, even if the

sample set is a few persons chatting at street corners or a local SIM shop. There is an urgent need to put it all down

on paper and soon conceptual charts, three dimensional street views, stitched photo-collages and before/after layouts

are all put together and displayed. By now, there is entire machinery in place here in the city to receive these visitors

and cater to their needs, spaces for work and presentations, large panels for pinning up their work and seminar spaces

for discussion, even for the conduct of international conferences. The usual suspects of invited city experts are rounded

up from time to time to take on these fights of urban regeneration fantasies, and to give anecdotal and insightful

comments and ‘crits’ about the nature of change in Mumbai. As the students, citizens, planners, urban designers,

architects (and so many more) struggle to understand the formulation and formation of more space in the city, the

reality such seems to be failing the demand of affordable housing and management of informal settlements.

Through the intense process of debates and discussions since past few weeks in this class, I am taken back to the

question: What does the city offer that attracts so many to it? Thinking of Mitwali here, is it merely aspirational to live in

the city or does it offer more? Mumbai does provide the observer with several contradictions though. It is some surprise

that trains run on time, but garbage remains uncollected. One family lives in a 2 billion dollar, 20 storied skyscraper

residence, while more than half of the city lives in self-built postage stamp housing. Despite these polarities, what

cannot see is vital to understanding and appreciation- intangibles are often subsumed in the morass of visual

documentation. This can lead to some ‘face-palm’ results. In that case, does this adhesive intangibility becomes an

inspiration for the making of the city? The city grows as one reads through these lines. Development can't be undone

nor it can be ignored. Cities needs to be made more productive- I would say a holistic, inclusive process rather a

sustainable buttressing. Once, we are able to understand what is it exactly that we want from the city, the identity is

merely the result of it.