If you are looking for a light read this weekend, we suggest you pick up a copy of journalist and author Ketan Vaidya’s new book, Hope Express. It tells the story of how Mumbai’s mills slowly vanished and gave way to the swanky real estate that currently occupies prime land in Parel and Lower Parel in Central Mumbai. The story told through the eyes of a young journalist born and raised in the chawls that once lined Mumbai’s traditional mill district is a narrative of the daily grind, aspirations and idiosyncrasies of Mumbai’s mill worker community and their distinct sub-culture.
In an exclusive tete-a-tete with Sabrang Ketan Vaidya tells us the story behind the story of Hope Express.
What prompted you to write about mills and chawls?
The mills were not just brick and mortar edifices but an essential part of the city’s heritage and history of syncretism, multi-ethnicity and bonhomie. The oft proclaimed Mumbai spirit, I believe, is a legacy of the sub-culture that evolved around the mills of Mumbai of yore. My book is about a mill worker’s son aspiring to be a journalist and revolves around the impending redevelopment of a chawl in a mill district. While the book reminisces and at times turns nostalgic about the fall of the mills, it is not anti-development and sees the redevelopment process as a given in the chawls, as well as Mumbai’s 19000 old tenement houses in the interest of the lower middle class dwellers who inhabit them.
What are your observations on changes in physical spaces affecting the socio-cultural fabric of a city?
The recent spate of redevelopment in the old rent act buildings of the city has altered the physical spaces of the city like never before. The spate of redevelopment and getting a brand new house in lieu of redevelopment is an aspirational dream among the teeming middle classes of the city. Few can otherwise afford a home in the city in their lifetime. However, the more congenial space that the chawls or old smaller apartment buildings offered, will soon be a thing of the past, with insular living taking their place. This is more about the physical space. The city has also undergone increasingly exclusivist with vegetarian communities excluding the meat-eaters and people of one faith, the other. This, I feel, is a bigger dent on the socio-cultural fabric of a city than a change in the physical appearance due to redevelopment.
Is Mumbai becoming increasingly exclusionist and intolerant? What is driving us apart?
Increasing prosperity has not led to increased bonhomie in the city. The city continues to be cosmopolitan for the outsider. However, it is increasing becoming clannish thereby changing the very character of the city. I feel political ideologies that foster hate and division among people have had a long and a free hand in the city. This is what has divided the city in a systematic way. This exclusion and intolerance doesn’t just disturb the body politic of the city but also puts a great hindrance to the city trying to achieve a global identity.
Do we live in ghettos in a purportedly cosmopolitan city?
There are linguistic ghettos and then there are religious ghettoes in Mumbai. For the member of the ghetto they give a sense of security and belonging. However, they also encourage narrowness of thought and generalisation of the ‘other’. There were always ghettos in Mumbai however a more intensive communal ghettoisation happened in the early nineties. Increased ghettoisation coupled with suspicion of the other ghetto members is a deadly mix that the city must avoid at all times.
Your protagonist is a journalist. Is this story semi-autobiographical?
Raghu is myself at times and at other times, so much a composite character inspired by others. Although I was aggressive and pursued a story to its logical conclusion during my career, there were others who truly embodied the journalistic spirit of endless pursuit. It is a tribute to all those unsung journalists that I encountered when I was a journalist.
Are we suckers for nostalgia? How should we view development?
Nostalgia cannot give respite to tenants living dangerously in old British era buildings. I feel that is why the people of the city should be at the center of any urban heritage conservation effort. Development shouldn’t be a physical transformation of a place from old and decrepit to tasteless and tacky structures. Development shouldn’t be looked from the eyes of the agencies who are bringing it about, but from the standpoint of stakeholders who are affected.
You can check out Hope Express here: