As usual I was waiting for the red useless wagon of Thane, the TMT in that breezy weather and my ears which were busy listening to some recent Bollywood music jumped its attention to someone saying ‘illegal constructions’. Being a journalist covering civic beat in Thane, which has been a hub for illegal constructions, my interest on knowing beyond these two words increased.
I muted my mp3, my second love, and dotted my attention on the bi-spectacled guy, dressed in decent blue shirt and trousers who was busy on phone. “They are going to demolish illegal commercial constructions first and then would be taking illegal residential constructions”, his words made me understand that he was either a lawyer fighting the case or a journalist, may be. I continued listening to what he said to his friend and what I ended up listening was a big rude shock which made me think, how grave was the issue of illegal constructions in Thane, beyond what we ever thought about.
The guy, who looked around 28 to 30 years old, had been to meet his fiancée to make her understand his reason for being worried for the past few days. “I have been worried that my house is one of the illegal constructions and even while we have been staying here before 2001, have spent my childhood here; I cannot stop worrying for its existence. I had been to meet her so that I could tell her the reason for my worries,” he told his friend.
May be his worries wouldn’t have lessened after meeting his girl friend but may have put him in a quandary after his fiancee ‘challenged’ his male ego. “If house is a problem, why don’t we purchase a new house? I can take a loan from bank,” she told him, I could know all this from the conversation he was having with his friend. “How can I take a loan from her”, he told his friend. He was not in a position may be to buy a house at this juncture, as I understand he was looking out for a better job, since he told his friend he was planning to go for a interview at Pune.
While he finished this part of his conversation his bus had arrived and he went ahead of me as I had to still wait for my bus.
What left me astonished was the initial image of a brave and intelligent guy at the beginning of the conversation and later it gradually transformed in to a helpless victim of the social system.
I wonder, he is the same guy as my age with same aspirations to go higher in life, to have a loving wife and a contented life ahead. But this obstacle has may be bolted every dreams he has had. May be when he was busy seeing these dreams in the same house which his parents brought ‘illegaly’, the municipal officers were busy snoring. I wonder how his dreams would be crushed in the rubble of the same house which once was the reason for their blossom.
While I would end up getting few stories, few when the municipal corporation doesn’t bull doze the illegal structures and few when the municipal corporation demolishes them to add numbers in the affidavit which would be shown to the High Court, these tiny dreams would go unnoticed without a tweak. Sigh, i wish these polished ‘encroachers’ had the same support as that of the encroachers on forest land who managed to fight their case and win a legal status to their homes.
This doesn’t mean I support encroachment, it affects me too may be, but I hope our system had been too quick to act on time before even dreams bloomed in those tiny eyes.
I muted my mp3, my second love, and dotted my attention on the bi-spectacled guy, dressed in decent blue shirt and trousers who was busy on phone. “They are going to demolish illegal commercial constructions first and then would be taking illegal residential constructions”, his words made me understand that he was either a lawyer fighting the case or a journalist, may be. I continued listening to what he said to his friend and what I ended up listening was a big rude shock which made me think, how grave was the issue of illegal constructions in Thane, beyond what we ever thought about.
The guy, who looked around 28 to 30 years old, had been to meet his fiancée to make her understand his reason for being worried for the past few days. “I have been worried that my house is one of the illegal constructions and even while we have been staying here before 2001, have spent my childhood here; I cannot stop worrying for its existence. I had been to meet her so that I could tell her the reason for my worries,” he told his friend.
May be his worries wouldn’t have lessened after meeting his girl friend but may have put him in a quandary after his fiancee ‘challenged’ his male ego. “If house is a problem, why don’t we purchase a new house? I can take a loan from bank,” she told him, I could know all this from the conversation he was having with his friend. “How can I take a loan from her”, he told his friend. He was not in a position may be to buy a house at this juncture, as I understand he was looking out for a better job, since he told his friend he was planning to go for a interview at Pune.
While he finished this part of his conversation his bus had arrived and he went ahead of me as I had to still wait for my bus.
What left me astonished was the initial image of a brave and intelligent guy at the beginning of the conversation and later it gradually transformed in to a helpless victim of the social system.
I wonder, he is the same guy as my age with same aspirations to go higher in life, to have a loving wife and a contented life ahead. But this obstacle has may be bolted every dreams he has had. May be when he was busy seeing these dreams in the same house which his parents brought ‘illegaly’, the municipal officers were busy snoring. I wonder how his dreams would be crushed in the rubble of the same house which once was the reason for their blossom.
While I would end up getting few stories, few when the municipal corporation doesn’t bull doze the illegal structures and few when the municipal corporation demolishes them to add numbers in the affidavit which would be shown to the High Court, these tiny dreams would go unnoticed without a tweak. Sigh, i wish these polished ‘encroachers’ had the same support as that of the encroachers on forest land who managed to fight their case and win a legal status to their homes.
This doesn’t mean I support encroachment, it affects me too may be, but I hope our system had been too quick to act on time before even dreams bloomed in those tiny eyes.
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