Scenes from Worli seaface

Update : Yazad has pointed out the Livelihood Freedom Campaign Petition which is a movement by the CSS to address the plight of street entrepreneurs who work without any kind of legal backing, making them vulnerable to harrassment and restrictions..

Please go and sign the petition here
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Sitting here in Delhi on work, my mind keeps going back to last Sunday evening. A typical windy evening at Worli seaface… Couples meeting on the sly, women friends catching up over corn and conversations, parents with children clamouring for candyfloss and rides on the small merry-go-round, serious walkers and joggers, some with their dogs…

Candyfloss on a rainy day

Vendor

The corn-seller was doing brisk business – she and her small daughter and her smaller son huddled around the small coal stove… People crowding around her, each repeating his/her own order, despite the fact that the corn seller went about her work without even glancing up at any one of them…

Intent on work...

And suddenly, this police van stopped on the road in front of them. A fat policeman walked out, picked up the stove and walked towards where we were sitting – on the short wall facing the rocks and the sea. And as we sat watching in open-mouthed horror (and I am not exaggerating here), he dropped the stove along with the contents on the rocks – more than twelve feet down…. And he left as quickly as he had materialized – and I still sat open-mouthed (that must have been a pretty picture – but I was too shaken to even think of taking a photograph of the cops).

The last glimpse I had of the cops was of the corn-seller in her yellow sari shouting heatedly to the rear of the van as they drove away…

All I could manage to think and say was – This is her livelihood – and the cop has managed to take it away from her in a moment – and it was not as if she was doing anything illegal or never-done-before… What will she do now?

Rescue

She did not do anything – again out of nowhere, a boy much taller and older than her son (who was with her near the stove earlier) materialized, he slid down the wall and went down to the rocks. And picked up the stove.

And climbed up with it – as his head surfaced, some other man came up to him and took the stove from his hands, cleaned it and handed it back to the woman.

Scaling heights

And the woman set up shop in exactly the same place as before. Very soon, it was business as usual for her… And all this happened in less than four minutes.

She will be back at the same place the next day. So will her customers.

And the police too…

24 comments

  1. Wow, Charu. Why are we hearing more and more these days about the disgusting actions of policemen throughout India? At least this story had a nice ending. Others haven’t been so lucky.

    As always, nice pictures.

    Vikram

  2. ya, you are right Vikram, I guess this is one more manifestation of the shangification process of Bombay…. sad state of affirs…

  3. There no place to enjoy the rains better in Bombay then Worli Seaface on rainy weekend or bandstand on a wet morning.
    But there is always somebody who plays spoil sport.

  4. what a fantastic post, charu. what fantastic people – the boy who went down to the rocks to get the stove, the person who took it from him and cleaned it – cleaned it! – these little everyday things are what solidarity is about.

  5. I had said it before somewhere, and I’ll say it again: people on the spot should protest and confront such cops. This woman probably didn’t pay the daily cut for sitting there. Big builders who use public property flourish while the poor trying to eek out an honest living become the targets of such errant, egomaniacal cops.

  6. Hi Charu
    This is a very interesting vignette. I’m glad the vendor got her stove back, but the policeman’s actions seem so unnecessary and rude. I guess she didn’t pay the proper bribes.

  7. thanks people, I have been meaning to write about it since I returned home from this scene but been travelling on work – I could finally put it off no longer…

    yes Akshay, there is always someone to play spoil sport… usually somone who thinks s/he is acting from superior motives… as in this case, as Amrit and Michael have said, it is rather obvious that the woman did not pay her bribes on time or whatever, but ask the cops and he will say this is part of the clean-mumbai project or some such crap…

    Amrit, I agree – and in this case, I am ashamed to say I sat there watching the whole scene mutely too… as for the general crowd, they did not even bother to look up from whatever they were doing – it was obvious they were all used to such scenes…

    Uma, I keep thinking about how these people materialized from seemingly nowhere – maybe they are all part of the family – attending to other business nearby – or maybe they are all part of the vendor fraternity – each helping the other to survive…. but it was fantastic to watch the whole scene

  8. Sounds like everyday life for the woman. Whereas my daily challenge in life is trying not to get stuck in traffic during my morning commute, this woman’s daily challenge (probably not even a challenge for her, just a minor irritation) is to duke it out with the law everyday, just for the “privilege” of earning a living.

  9. yes dregg, she seemed quite unperturbed – much less than I would have expected atleast – guess it is a daily occurence for her and the likes of her…

  10. Worli Seaface is where I grew up Charu – we saw this happen even then – not just with the corn seller but the sandwich-wala (those amazing toasted sandwiches), wada-wala and the bhel-walas. Not the mobile chana-sing wallas In fact, recently, the cops have stopped them from operating on the seafront. Part of our enjoyment was to sample their fare – and they are forced into one portion – i miss them when i go there now.

  11. i am stunned by the action of destroying the stove which is a mean of living to another one else.

  12. heyyy charu.. and the ains live up to spirits in aamchi mumbai.. and marine drive.. just as beautiful.. loooove the pics re..!! im livin it here..!!

  13. Dina, it is really sad to see this… the vendors are so much part of the way Bombay lives and eats…

    Brenda, true. the stove which the cop tried to destroy without a second tought is the source of this woman’s livelihood…

    Thanks, Sriram…

    The one thing that really struck me was how non chalant the whole crowd was – both the vendors and the general public – as if this was a routine occurence…

    and Me… thanks for your comments about the pictures. but the story was not about the bombay rains but an incident which I saw and described.

  14. Great story! I almost felt a wave of anger upon reading the policeman’s actions. Thankfully the latter half of the post calmed me down. Resilience of the human spirit keeps us from going mad.

  15. That was kind of my reaction too… actually, the initial reaction was that of disbelief… I just watched fascinated – almost like it was some drama happening in front of my eyes and it would all end peacefully soon..

  16. Shocked, but not very surprised. This kind of mindless cruelty is so common, and the hypcritical middle class will often look the other way as it’s just a “hawker who dirties their spotless footpaths.”

    Have a look at the Livelihood Freedom Campaign.

  17. Yazad, I don’t think in this case, the “middle class” (whoever they are) turned their faces way in disgust – read some of the comments here – like Dina’s for instance – these are people who eat at these vendor’s quite regularly…
    but as you say, this kind of mindles cruelty is becoming more and more common – what boils my blood is when i see it being ddone in the name of creating a “better city”

  18. whats so surprising about it? happening since centuries, there is no salvation for this country, we need a dictatorial form of gov and not demowhere people are supposed to be exploited any way either cash or kind…

  19. ya hukkoo, totally. a dictatorship is the most benevolent and just form of governance. what are you talking about?

  20. Hi Charu 🙂

    Do you know we can park our vehicles anywhere and feel lungs with unpolluted air. No need to pay for parking the vehicles. But you know government is planning to build a water sports park in Worli Seaface 🙁 this will pollute Worli Seaface and it will also destroy its promenade. May be we will need to pay for parking, if the water sports park is build.

    Before also they were planning to destroy the promenade, by constructing end of Worli-Bandra Sealink on the promenade of Worli Seaface.

    So please help Worli Residents Association to protect the Worli Seaface and its promenade from the Barbarous Act of Government.

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