Mumbai

When architecture is both beautiful and ethical, it invites belief. So said Paul Goldberger in Why Architecture Matters. While the term beautiful can be subjective, the term ethical is inclusive, true to local context, equitable and ecologically viable. The Building Livable Cities Symposium held in Mumbai this week exhibited the same sentiments by almost all the speakers. The symposium was timely as India stands at an inflection point of transition to urbanization where we need to come up with our definition of aspiration and through that the articulation of the built spaces of tomorrow. The speakers were an eclectic mix of architects, urban practitioners, researchers and educators, everyone exploring answers to issues like open spaces, relevant architecture, transportation, policies and good governance.

Yehuda Raff, a spatial planner from Cape Town Partnership, South Africa kickstarted the event with his talk. He described his sense of perceived similarities between India and South Africa in urban spaces. He felt that Indians have an amazing sense of work ethic which is missing in South Africa. His point on South Africans lacking creativity is worth making note of. Indians have been engaged in creative pursuits for a long time in history and that makes our country culturally rich and vibrant, thus the cues for urbanization are different from what one may have in a charter city like Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

Jeffrey Raven, Director and Associate Professor of Master of Architecture in Urban + Regional Design at NYIT School of Architecture and Design, spoke of architecture that responds to climatology and how forms, direction and materials should be considered to leverage local climate, wind and solar energy.

Raj Janagam, founder of Cycle Chalao has been striving to implement a program to encourage bike-sharing riding program. He shared his successes and failures at making the program work in the cities in India. Perhaps there are larger issues to be resolved before bike sharing will become truly possible. The automobile industry that has infested Indian cities will not be easy to thwart and overthrow but it needs to be done before benign habits of urban living take over.

Teresa McWalters, a researcher studying incremental growth and self-made architecture in Mumbai spoke about the functioning of organic urban sprawls, although I felt there was romanticizing of settlements and frugal economic mode of trade. Representation of aspirations through someone else’s eyes can be misleading and biased. Do people living in those squats not aspire for things to be different, cleaner, and more functional? Juxtaposed with new egotistical skyscraper architecture which affects them positively or negatively? Isn’t it the case of severely opposing aspirations bumping roughly with each other rather than coexisting peacefully?

Ethan Kent of Project for Public Spaces (PPS) started off with a very basic observation which is at the heart of problem. “If you plan for cars, the city is going to have cars.” If we don’t want cars as our only mode of transportation, we will just have to build that idea into our very fabric of urban daily living. One line that stuck in my mind was: “We keep celebrating very narrow idea of architecture and it has become about a building and not about clusters or communities.”

Other speakers included Jay Narayana (Gateway Planning in Texas), Caroline Lobo (Orcutt Winslow in Phoenix) and Marci Cohen (Commissioner of the District of Columbia Zoning Commission), who all covered the ideas of political will and good governance in improving cities, urban renewal of decaying or under-utilized pockets and how we can incorporate fun in our urban spaces if we apply ourselves.

Coming together and having a dialogue that facilitates the generation of ideas and looking at our cities in more ways than one is rewarding and it renews your passion in the field of architecture. Building Livable Cities Symposium was one such event.

Thank you to The Urban Vision team for such a wonderful interactive session and for bringing professionals from various walks together. Architecture is about everything and to understand architecture you have to understand many forces that drive it, shape it. Hence, folks from multi-disciplinary backgrounds form for a more vibrant outcome in design and architecture.

If you haven’t heard about the unfolding of India’s shining tale yet, you are probably not listening enough. It is probably the singlemost fictional story which many are selling. Not that India is not shining with this newly liberalized state of policies but its bathing only perhaps 5% of its population with its glory.

My recent trip to New Delhi just enforced my belief that India is anything but shining for the rest of the 95% of its population which lives right under a shadow cast by this light.

I got out of the new Indira Gandhi International Airport (designed by Woodhead) and was received by a driver who was pre-scheduled for me. A young boy who didn’t look more than 18/19 years of age, slender and undernourished. Walking along towards the car, he reached out for my bag without looking up. I declined, saying ‘It’s not heavy, don’t worry’. His subservient demeanor was something he has perhaps accepted and internalized as part of what comes with living on the fringes. He didn’t speak much and only answered in monosyllables to my queries on distance and travel time while navigating through Delhi roads and landscapes that appeared less chaotic and more green.

Image courtesy: Woodhead

Next, I embarked on to a glitzy Taj Palace at Sardar Patel Marg. The hotel is a little old and looks a worn-out now but still carries the grandeur that Taj has made their reputation in the luxury section worldwide. Later, inside the restroom, after washing my hands I was accosted by a short, thin young girl, staff of Taj, with a ceramic tray carrying a neatly folded napkin with a purple flower on the side. But it occured to me while taking the napkin that I might as well had just picked it up from the stack myself, did I really need her assistance?

The question that surfaced for her was if this was what she really enjoyed doing, offering guests hand towels on a tray with a flower and slipping in a ‘thank you’ and remaining inside that enclosed space of a restroom during all her working hours. Maybe that luxury of preferences hasn’t crossed her mind.

While heading back to Mumbai, I was a bit rushed and nervous to miss my flight that all thoughts and obeservations had vanished.

But entering Mumbai, I had one last  enduring meeting of the day with my cab driver, who to my surprise was a woman. Something unusual on Indian soil. Being tired, I kept quiet and just wanted to observe her mannerism driving her cab on Mumbai’s ruthless traffic and road conditions. But it was not to be.  With that she launched into her saga.

She was a mother of two young kids and looked quite young and her voice carried a trace of frustration. She takes care of a family of four. Her husband died abruptly about 4 years ago in a road accident. Until then she was a housewife but that event triggered her to look for work which will give her income to survive. She went on to lament that she makes about 300 to 400 INR on a decent day and about 600 to 700 INR on rare better days. But there are days, like Mumbai Bandhs and festivals when people don’t go out much resulting in drying up her daily wages completely. And those days get difficult to manage. Being a woman driver has its own perils, she mentioned. But she went on to say, she is sending both her kids to school that will ensure better days in future. Amen to that.

These are perhaps India Shining’s step-children who can see the light from a distance but not glow in it. These are India’s misfits who haven’t been able to transition successfully into the wealth camps of rapid urban development. They have either failed or at best remain displaced far away from opportunities that could have trickled down to them as well with an inclusive system.

Most of the urban developments ideally anchor on one central idea of a public space and that can be ecological or economical driven around which then subsequent developments spin off, setting the rhythm of what may arrive. Mumbai is devoid of such centrally thought out single anchor and thus it gives you multiple, scattered and non-cohensive entities in urban forms. Sabarmati River Front Development is in sharp contrast in what is happening or rather not happening in Mumbai’s urban development mumbo-jumbo. I had the opportunity to learn about Dr. Bimal Patel’s Sabarmati River Front work in Mumbai during World Architecture Day. It is socially relevant and inclusive which is evident in several examples he showed of completed work and what he envisages in time to come.

River Sabarmati is important to the city’s urban ecology and has been long acknowledged that appropriate development of the riverfront can turn the river into a major asset; improving the quality of environment, ecology and life in Ahmedabad.

HCP Design Planning and Management Pvt. Ltd.

The Environmental Planning Collaborative (EPC) was commissioned to prepare a comprehensive feasibility study to develop a 9 km stretch of the city’s riverfront. EPC provided development management services to Sabarmati River Front Development Corporation Limited (SRFDCL) until 2002. During this period its mandate was to direct and monitor all the preparatory work. Since then HCP Design Planning and Management Pvt. Ltd. (HCPDPM) headed by Bimal Patel has been responsible for the project’s urban, master plan and architectural design.

Public spaces cannot be privatized. Public spaces cannot be exclusive. Mumbai, with certain convoluted system, managed to do both, pretty ruthlessly.

Thus, Sabarmati River Front Project due to its very nature and aspiration remains multi-dimensional public asset which will not only create thriving citizen-centric networks of parks, promenades, bazaars, cultural hub but also work as a structure that will ecologically enhance the city and its people’s relationship to the river. It is one of the most robust urban renewal project that India is witnessing, keeping context and local culture intact without walking all over it.

HCP Design Planning and Management Pvt. Ltd.

The ongoing process of the project is premised on these following steps methodically. Firstly, it is to reclaim land, cleaning up existing contamination to the river and then on to build flood protection wall and laying grid of sewage interceptors that will prevent any further contamination. The sewage lines will carry untreated mass to augmented treatment plant and slum dwellers have been relocated to built communities of modest housing.

Next, the project provided 11.5 km long pedestrian promenade at the edge along the banks of the river. The promenade is very well connected to proposed streets with wide sidewalks inclusives of bicycle paths which both encourage walking and cycling, basic of basic amenities which have been stripped away from Mumbai residents.

Ongoing and future work includes promise of culture centre, museums, sports facilities, trade fair grounds and open air markets. All of this will enhance Ahmedabad’s local living conditions for residents and experience of tourists. The simple joy of being able to walk along the river bank, to sit in a garden and enjoy the serene beauty of the river is now a reality through Sabarmati River Front. The project is currently ongoing, but several parts of the projects are open and being used by the public and the reclaimed space is home to events such as the kite festival.

Transformation through urban renewal in a cohesive manner is possible and only way forward if we were to avoid fragmentation and isolated growth spurts and communities can thrive and benefit from inspirational project like Sabarmati River Front and that is the lesson Mumbai cannot turn oblivion to.

HCP Design Planning and Management Pvt. Ltd.

Project Details:

Client: Sabarmati River Front Development Corporation Ltd., Ahmedabad

Site Area: 200 hectares

Year of completion: 1997 – Ongoing

Images: HCP Design Planning and Management Pvt. Ltd.

You will always stumble on inspiration when you least expect it and somehow that inspiration will revive your eroding faith and will turn you hopeful again. Unexpected, my experience was exactly that, when I attended World Architecture Day on Monday 8 October here in Mumbai. All the speakers talked about a city of the past when Mumbai was Bombay, a city of hope, vibrancy and opportunities which has come to degrade in such ways that somehow hope has gone missing. I came back satisfied and rejuvenated, with an urge to do more.

Mostly all the talks, especially the ones by Professor K.T.Ravindran, Vikas Dilawari, Bimal Patel and Christopher Benninger tackled some of the most basic issues plaguing Indian cities.  But they all have, through their exemplary work, tackled these problems head on, fearlessly. They all talked about reincarnation of the city with urban renewal and regeneration.

Dr. Bimal Patel’s work on Sabarmati Riverfront in Gujarat is etched in my mind. He has changed the paradigm of public space and continues to do so with his exemplary work. Its enduring, inclusive and socially relevant with the context very much in forefront.

Architect Vikas Dilawari’s conservation and preservation in the built environment of several communities in Mumbai has rightfully earned him many accolades, with examples of years of persistence and dogged determination.

Architect Christopher Benninger is now working very closely with the Government of Bhutan in having a feasible urban plan which will be worth its while in facing forces and challenges in coming years while going through urbanization. He remained utmost humble, extremely funny yet profound all the way.

Almost all of the speakers spoke of major issues of decongestion, affordable housing, open spaces and public spaces, inclusive slum rehabilitation while keeping them within the context of the city realities with respect to rapid urbanization of India.

The coming together of architects and built environment fraternity without a commercial aspect attached to it was the first of its kind in Mumbai. There was passion, honesty and only true speaking of their minds. It was truly a celebration of architecture and aspirations that all of us carry and will continue to do so to claim our cities. It was a day to remind us that architecture is one of the core professions and architects will remain key drivers in economic growth, supporting aspirations and nurturing the innovation of city dwellers. World Architecture Day left me inspired in more ways than I can explain in words and I hope to carry this message forward to others in days to come.

Architect Tadao Ando had visited Mumbai a couple of months back and unfortunately, I had give his lecture a miss. But this event and the visits of architects from elsewhere have generated an interesting mix of debate in the architectural fraternity here in India. More on this a little later.

Tadao Ando is a Japanese architect whose work has been primarily in Japan and his volume of work carries a distinct style specific to him. He is highly regarded for his extensive contribution in the field of architecture and has bagged several notable prizes. His style of creative use of lighting and maintaining natural settings giving a Zen kind of outcome are hallmarks to his work.

The most unforgettable example that comes to my mind is of Church of the Light in the City of Ibaraki, Osaka which Paul Goldberger in Why Architecture Matters explained about as ‘a simple rectangle of smooth concrete, sliced through by a freestanding wall set a fifteen-degree angle to the rectangle, as if it were a huge panel that had been swung on hinge’.

He explains his reaction of being in Church of the Light as something transcending a spiritual quest. And while experiencing religious buildings he mentions something profound on the effect that Architecture and built environment can have: “Ultimately this is a space that has been created to tell us that for all we know, there is something we do not know, something that we will never be able to know.”

Church of the Light by Tadao Ando

Recently in India, few notable Indian architects have been opposing the entry of foreign architects as it threatens their work share which they think should ideally belong to them. Now, this is both disturbing and conservative in my view. Ideally, let there be a fair competition to strive what is best for India. We can’t claim ownership of territories in a globalized world. This also limits excellence.

Let the stakeholders have a sound process in place of deciding and ultimately figure out what is best for them. How can we force it top-down? I see it as a great opportunity for the built environment in India to improve and excel their local practices in terms of quality, process and outcome. We are currently sitting on a huge deficit of skilled workers in built environment and we cannot afford to reject the talent pool that is coming to India from other parts of the world. Instead, we have well laid out policies which are inclusive in job generation for Indians and foreign workers and drive towards quality.

With what the world is today, where major chuck of opportunities lie with developing nations, it will be quite natural for businesses to go towards the source of opportunities. Either the gates are closed or shut. Partially open gates are still open gates. And this is the message Indian Community of Architects is sending out to the world, ‘that we do see the need of your expertise but we feel threatened by your competence and hence our reluctant approach in welcoming you’. We are being tyrannical in our approach here.

Tadao Ando was in Mumbai looking for an opportunity in architecture and he will probably be working with Godrej Group on a residential project. But that is all there is to it so far.

But given the current architecture scenario, there is so much scope for architecture and design work that we don’t have to hoard and mark territories. There is room for local architects, foreign architects and hybrid architects much the same. Whatever those terms have come to mean. I say this because I do not understand their correctness in this architecture context in our eroded identity where we have come unstuck from our roots, for better or worse, we don’t know yet.

What we lack is a vision of a overall city, a holistic urban plan, our architectural aspirations. Once we have that cleared, the rest of the smaller pieces of this jumbled puzzle will be easier to put together.

Inspired by Wiki Loves Monuments, Wikipedia has come to Mumbai by the name Wikipedia Takes Mumbai III, scouting for similar heritage sites in the city and capturing them in pictures. The first Wiki Loves Monuments competition was held in 2010 in the Netherlands. In 2012, the competition extends beyond Europe, with a total of 32 participating countries.

Wiki Loves Monuments is an annual international photography competition held during September in which participants take pictures of historical monuments and heritage sites in their region, and upload them to Wikimedia Commons. The aim of the event is to highlight the heritage sites of the participating countries.

Just a day ago I read about lawyer Gautam Patel’s take on conservation and preservation in a city like Mumbai. He is of the opinion that architecture which is dilapidated should be let go to make way for changes. He goes on to say that not every architectural detail and every ramshackle structure is worth keeping. And he further added that citizens’ participation in such decision-making should be well considered. Fine points although I must contest their validity in case specific to Mumbai. In the city of Mumbai where heritage protection laws are loosely formed and applied, where and how to draw a line of what appears worth saving to me is worth saving to you too?

Then the point of citizen involvement is truly an inclusive thought but honestly for citizens of Mumbai whether saving heritage architecture is of priority is debatable. They are struggling for far more basic amenities like clean water, sanitation, affordable housing and sane commute for survival, so heritage conservation does appear like a lofty concept and will remain a coterie endeavor for a few more years in Mumbai.

That said, with events like Wiki Loves Monuments, it does generate people’s interest in the city’s precincts and architecture and its heritage, and more importantly the past that otherwise would have remained in a quite background of a declining city. Few will document through pictures and some will write about the experience, making it work as a passive awareness campaign whose benefits both tangible and intangible will be slow and organic but certainly positive in times to come. So, events like Wiki Loves Monuments work as quiescent catalysts and in less explicable ways for quantifying immediate benefits.

Last week I had a chance to converse with the founder of Urban Vision, Prathima Manohar, an urban think-tank of India. Urban Vision is organizing a week-long Immersion Program in Mumbai for Architects, Urban Planners and Real Estate & Infrastructure Professionals in one of the weeks in December 2012. More about the program and its ideology from her.

Pallavi: What is the idea behind the India Immersion Program – Study Tour? And how did it come about, can you give a brief background of the program?

Prathima: The India Immersion Tour has been designed to create opportunities for exchange on innovation in a wide spectrum of issues in the arena of architecture, built environment, planning, city building, real estate and infrastructure development.

The goal of the program is to create ways for participants to better understand the challenges & opportunities in India’s growing infrastructure & real estate sector; understanding the appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks; meeting potential partners; fostering new business connections and collaboration; advocacy of innovative practices that can enable inclusive & sustainable urbanization.

India is only about 30 per cent urban at this point. So, there is a huge opportunity to leapfrog into a society that is environmentally and socially sustainable; especially by learning from the successes and failures of the more urbanized & developed parts of the world; this is a focused program aligned with that approach of knowledge  exchange.

Pallavi: What kind of participants do you envisage participating in this program? What does the program and participants aim to achieve from the program?

Prathima: The program is aimed at architects, planners, real estate Professionals & other Infrastructure specialists. It will be a small and diverse group who are looking to learn more about trends in Indian urban development and better understand the market.  The program will allow them to increase their knowledge of the India market through experiential learning.  The opportunity to connect with & learn from the key leaders who are shaping India’s Real Estate & Infrastructure sector. We think that this program offers international practitioners an excellent platform to learn more and build connections in arguably one of the most exciting and growing markets in the world.

Pallavi:What is the format of the program?

Prathima: Our itinerary will feature one week of extensive and intimate meetings in Mumbai with leaders & experts from the industry along with networking receptions, study tours, conference & a charrette.

Pallavi: Do you think getting professionals from multi-disciplinary background together on one platform is more beneficial than focusing on single field of expertise, say architects or urban planners?

Prathima: I agree. We have tried to emphasize on bringing together a diverse set of individuals in terms of geography & disciplines.  It adds much more to the richness of the dialogue.  Dean Nitin Nohria of the Harvard Business School had once said to me, ‘Great innovations happen at the intersection of things’. I think diverse perspectives are much needed to think through innovative solutions to address this big transformation we are going through as a nation.

Pallavi: What is the response like been so far from the industry? Are there challenges that you have come across and would like to express?

Prathima: It has been great up till now and we hope to make this program part of our annual calendar. We have already had applications from Africa, North America, Europe and the Middle East. We also hope to host similar programs in other important cities in the world.

Pallavi: What according to you, are the major challenges that are faced by India right now with respect to urban planning and built environment?

Prathima: Urbanization in India was never addressed in a strategic and planned manner. All our plans are often outdated even before they are released. They are also so rigid that they limit a city’s ability to develop in line with new contexts and needs. The dire and unbearable conditions of our cities are a result of slow and minor interventions to ever worsening conditions. They are a result of a complete lack of long term strategic thinking. We need to develop long term vision. Unplanned development will not only have an adverse impact on real estate investment and development; but also on our macro-economic and societal development.

There is no dearth of ideas on what principles we need to adapt to create inclusive, environmentally sustainable cities; but the problem really is about implementing these ideas. Even the most highly regarded cities of today whether London or New York have gone through successful urban transformations after having dealt with massive challenges at some point in their history. Even developing world cities like Bogota or Curatiba in South America that have more dire problems of crime and drugs have been able to move towards the path of successful urban transformation.

So, it is really a leadership challenge in India. Today, our cities do not have accountable and empowered administration that can carry on bold visions. We need to review our city governance structures and make them more accountable and transparent.

Pallavi: Do you see larger issues still being ignored by the government and key players at this point of time in responding to rapid urbanization that is taking place in Mumbai?

Prathima: Urbanization is widely recognized as an essential component of economic growth. But in India, we have clearly not been able to capitalize on urbanization and use it to work as part of a national growth strategy. In fact, I would go on and add that we have actually been able to attain a commendable level of economic success in the face of failing urban infrastructure and services. Even though only 30% of India’s population live in urban areas; cities contribute to over 60% of the country’s GDP and account for 90% of government revenues. But as reflected in state of most of the Indian cities- little attention is given to their well-being and advancement.

The challenges are enormous and will require a response from all segments of the society. We must not just only look towards the government to address these big challenges but also look at how we can engage the civil society & the private sector entrepreneurs. We must of course continue to push our government for policy reforms & innovative policy agendas that can lead to transformative change in our cities. We should work on amplifying our small urban innovations or successes.

Walking is perhaps the most basic of needs for human beings who settle in community. Connectivity of community within comfortable walking distance to basic amenities is not only sustainable but also a practice towards our healthy well-being. The world over,  cities are trying to reinvent their urban spaces to reclaim this practice by encouraging better pedestrian connectivity and encouraging walking or bicycle usage to reach places. Unfortunately, in Mumbai, the neighborhood development has never accounted for wide pedestrian walkways and whatever little is provided is mostly littered, trashed and abused to an extent where citizens would rather hop into a car and go places than risk putting their feet in muck and garbage by pushing and jostling in chaotic spaces.

Walking Project, an initiative by Rishi Aggarwal, Amar Deshpande, Pramod Dabrase, Abhijit Mehta and Vivek Gilani aims to demand this basic amenity by making walking a pleasant and environmentally-friendly feature. Through this initiative, they would like to make Mumbai city the most walkable city in next 10 years.

The project, which is going to be launched during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, is an encouraging project for a city where walking comes with its own set of perils. Safety, cleanliness, maintenance, clear demarcation and encroachments are all extremely real issues at play.

To be successful and widely acceptable such an initiative will have to move beyond activism level and inclusion of well laid policies and implementation will all have to join hands with urban planning. Not to mention discouraging single occupancy vehicles, strengthening public transport systems and decongesting first, and then regulating urban pockets will encourage people to walk to places. Unless it is implemented as a holistic strategy where everyone feels they have a role in improving a civic life and reclaiming public spaces, it will remain a challenging task to accomplish.

It nevertheless remains a significant move towards saner practices for a more vibrant neighborhood. It is tragic that citizens have to take this matter into their own hands because city officials, bureaucrats, builders and built environment professionals only see Mumbai as a goldmine for making quick money by making it a single-dimensional profit making commercial or high-end residential towers development.

More power to the Walking Project.

Some time ago, an architect had asked me: “If one has to look at significant architectural work in the City, which are the buildings one should keep in mind?” I was blank for a long time and I couldn’t think of anything worth mentioning with the exception of older part of town in Fort and Colaba. I don’t know if it’s a good thing for an aspirational city like Mumbai. With Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) surge, one does get hopeful. There is hope in its potential.

With BKC being the newer central business district, it has affected the surrounding locations in the vicinity significantly. Once, not so popular destinations like Kurla are getting a boost through new developments. Agastya Office Development designed by Foster+Partners will transform this one part of industrial belt stretch into a corporate office building development. The project comprises of five buildings, of three to seven storeys, along with a sequence of terraced roof gardens. It is such a welcome relief to see something horizontal than vertical glass appearances. Moreover, it’s an expansive development, which has wonderfully avoided the usual tall and dense kind.

Foster + Partners

The office accommodation is aimed to be flexible – the 18m-wide floor plates have the potential to accommodate trading floors, an open-plan IT campus, which can be adapted for singular offices at the perimeter or centre of each floor. Below the bands of vision glazing on each floor, a ventilation duct and a storage area project to create a bull-nose façade detail, clad in reflective stainless steel.

The green strategies in Agastya Office Development include combination of high level of natural daylight with external shading and a ventilation strategy that minimizes the need for suspended ceilings to ensure healthier indoor air quality for occupants. The environmental strategies included are green roofs which will absorb rainwater and graywater to be recycled, further reducing water consumption by around 50%. Together these measures will help to set new standards for energy.

Foster + Partners

The project is under construction, albeit slow. But it remains a significant unique design approach by Foster + Partners in a city which is witnessing mediocre glass buildings addition at a rapid rate.

A few days back, I was headed to the BDP Khandekar-designed Nirlon Knowledge Park in Goregoan, located adjacent to Western Express Highway, for a business meeting. It is usual for me to be accompanied by anxiety when I am on the roads in Mumbai. There is a certain amount of apprehension that it comes with it and the reasons are multiple: unregulated traffic; no lanes system; no explicitly marked exits and entries; potholes; and ambiguous signage.

Having said that, I was joyous to not hit any traffic jams yet. I had covered my usual ride of 40 minutes in 20 minutes. Just as I was about to get optimistic of Mumbai road travel, I had to step back and reconsider my judgement. To begin with, there is no clear indication on where to exit from the highway, so as luck would have it, I had missed Nirlon Knowledge Park. I was worried but the driver said not to worry. He slowed down and looked right and gingerly moved on to service road by going over the broken curb. So with few bumps, I was headed towards my destination.

Entering the campus was easy. I had to go to building number B-2 and there were no signage to point me in the right direction. So I took the usual path of human intervention and asked the security guards. They just lift their arm perpendicular to their legs and guide you left and right, whichever direction you should be headed towards. I had to turn left.

Just as I had moved 3 or 4 meters, I was stopped by different set of security guards. He made some irrelevant queries and handed me a receipt to get a signature from the person I was going to meet. As I moved ahead, I could see clearly marked building B-3 and logic suggested me B-2 next to it. But in Mumbai you should just keep your logic aside. So I looked for human intervention again and a guard pointed to that building.

Once you are inside any Mumbai building you soon realize each is guarded like a fortress. The security clearance formalities make you feel like less than human. I handed my card over to the lanky guy behind the desk who sent a security code to my cell phone which I had to produce back. One step cleared. Next, he took my picture. Another one. Lastly he issued a visitor’s pass which would allow me to enter the lobby which was again guarded by security personnel. I finally made it to the office where a guard made me enter my details in his roster. Sigh.

While returning, I missed giving the signed receipt to the security guard but I got out of the campus alright. Once I was out on the road again it made me think about the abundant disagreeable redundancy of security enforcements. I wondered about the ceaseless amount of human intervention for way-finding and signage and its inefficiencies.

I still have that duly signed receipt in my bag and if it meant anything sincere, I must have breached the security of Nirlon Knowledge Park, Goregaon, Mumbai.