Once flowed a river

The 10^th floor window offered a Dickensque view along the river. To the left a series of yellow lights reflected in the ‘full just till the need’ river and the clean and empty path along side. To the right lay darkness of an unmanaged river – as if somewhere far, very far. I was staring at the barrage on Sabarmati in Amdavad on an early winter morning. It was the River Front that lay to the left; a place the city and state prides on and which has hosted heads of states. Michael Snyder in his article ‘The Wealth of Nations’ in Caravan refers to it as “probably the most ambitious urban planning project from an Indian city in the new century”.  Water which reflected the yellow lights came from the Narmada. Water which would well have been in Narmada or a water deficient village!

Later that morning a friend called and asked “Have you seen the biggest plumbing project of your state?” The manner in which he put it brought forth our craving to control, to tame. There was ample opposition to the displacement of slum dwellers that the project brought and support for those put under hardship. Snyder puts the number as “by some estimates, of as many as 40,000 people”. Some time back as we discussed aspects concerning equity, especially in context of displacement, a friend had asked what were the ecological consequences of making a canal out of a river!

By Manjil Purohit - National Book Fair (1st - 7th May 2012), Sabarmati Riverfront, Ahmedabad, India, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19450688

In the afternoon after a visit to the City Museum I walked down the road to the river front and then along the clean path in the river front. It was huge. I have not read on the topic in recent times but wondered if the topic of climate change was brought up for the sheer scale of construction. Construction is one of the major contributors to global warming. Icing on the cemented cake was the ‘adventure sport’ of crossing the water when one is up in the air! Isn’t something is very wrong if one section of citizenry is squeezed of its water, culture, lifestyle in the name of development; a development (or a part of it) that manifests itself in this manner. Or is this what we have been at – since long with our policies and actions – impoverishing the majority in the rural areas for the benefit of minority in the urban areas!

If the argument for having such a structure is the need for public spaces what of the sad condition of the City Museum across the road. For now though the Kites hovering above the waters and Sparrows frolicking under the bridge seem to be having a good time. Shade provided by the bridge also was put to use by people to sleep – the area is remarkably clean compared to other parts of the city. Every cloud, they say, has a silver lining.

As I sat near the water I saw a lady dust off left-over food and plastic wrappers into the stagnant, dark and unclear water. Memory of a conversation resurfaced. Years ago when the project was taking shape, arguably the state’s best known ornithologist, had mentioned that our’s was the only state in the country which cared for its rivers. 

Late in the evening, as I got back to the window, I wondered what he meant!