Sandeep’s Panorama

The short cut to Cacora from Madgaon passing through Chandor is beautiful. A panoramic shot taken from one of the turns on this road would be the gift for Sandeep I thought. Sandeep is still waiting for a copy of the picture below.

Every time I go to meet Sonia or Laxmi I take this road. Beautiful people live around beautiful places. Having crossed the narrow alleys of Madgaon, passed by the Arlem factory, marked by the gaze of the passer by on the Plastic waste sculpture in the making by the people of Madgaon this short road begins. The road makes its way through meadows and pasturelands. Dotted on it are places of human creation.

A chapel rises on a small mount. It has a boat with a tall mast mounted on a pedestal in front of it, may be symbolizing the fishing community. In the monsoons I cross the drains and the swales listening to the music of water and treating my self to the spectacular view of the lake filled with lotus and lilies. Just next to it are the mining trucks getting themselves cleaned for the next days work. Then comes the railway crossing and the old city of Chandrapur today’s Chandor, filled with houses built literally over centuries. They are hybrids in true sense with layers and layers of history manifested in their creation. Kevin Lynch would be happy to come to this place as for once he has not been lynched. Then comes Cacora which welcomes me with a shower of iron ore dust. Passing through this shower I halt at my grannies house next to the temple, waiting to go back after having met Laxmi and Sonia. The place is fast changing. What Sandeep sees today and what I experience now is not what it would be ten years after. The seeds of urbanism have been sown. The road is in the making.

Ian McHarg wrote in his book Design with Nature, “…when cities are built upon beautiful, dramatic or rich sites, their excellence results from the preservation, exploitation and enhancement rather than obliteration of this genius of the site. Where there lacks intrinsic drama excellence can be created by buildings and spaces. When a city contains such excellent creations, then these enter the inventory of values, the genius loci.” What the urbanity would be like is for us to decide (or not to decide), for it is our urbanism after all. One day some of us would be making beautiful buildings in this place. How many more entries can we add to the inventory of values would be our test. In the mean while Sandeep can make a choice of whether he wants the picture now or after ten more years… ha ha.