Thursday, June 04, 2026
We All Know Why!
Every summer we will have some fires - like the recent one in Malviya Nagar. Every monsoon we will lose lives to flooding and electrocutions from naked wires or like in Mehrauli some lives will be drowned in gushing storm waters. Else where in winter lives will be lost to to Delhi winter’s.
A few days ago a building collapse in Said-Ul-Ajaid took young lives. Videos of building collapses Elsewhere in the city are floating on Instagram and X.
Every year there is a fire or collapse or electrocution or flooding or drowning that catalyses the emotions of the city. There is a lot of talk, people are blamed, past governments held responsible, new laws enacted, and people told to carry on.
In some cases a paltry sum of money is offered, in a huge show of magnanimity and political posturing. The amount, usually laughably small, but justified by quoting government norms, is never an acknowledgement of value of individual life and to me is more demonstration of how dispensable the citizens are.
We will talk about these till the next floor, or fire.
There will be more posturing, more compensation, and life will go on.
The legal route, to hold government and elected representatives and municipal bodies accountable are time consuming, expensive and emotionally and mentally straining, Not to mention the strong arm of the law that dissuades you directly and indirectly from undertaking such step, to stand up to the mighty of the state.
Of course you can come back at me and say, why were they living in a hotel that was clearly unauthorised and did not have sanction.
If you are the 8 members of the family that was staying int he hotel, because their aging grandfather was admitted at max for a few days of treatment, you are going to look for the closest hotel, a short walk from the hospital, a place relatively budget friendly since we know ho expensive private medical care is, and maybe make sure the toilets are clean and the beds comfortable so you get good sleep when you come back from your shift of staying with your near or dear one at the hospital.
You don’t ask for a Fire NOC before checking into a hotel or guest house.
THAT IS WHAT WE PAY OUR TAXES FOR.
For the government to ensure a basic level of infrastructure, and safety and standard of living to all citizens irrespective of class, gender, race, shin colour, ethnicity and earning spending capacity.
The last one becoming increasingly the measure of your importance to the state in recent years.
Now if in stead of this small hotel in Malviya Nagar, DLF Select City Mall, (which rumour has it was supposed to be the Saket District Centre as per an old MPD, but that is another discussion)- If DLF’s Select city walk were to burn down, I dare say the scenario would be different.
We can talk about politics, and social justice. About how change is hard, and other enlightenments. What is clear is, whatever the government may be, the brunt of the suffering will always be borne by those with little means, who have no choices, no options. The cost of systemic failure will always be borne by the invisible millions who keep our cities running?
One gets a feeling there is an unspoken difference between the Poor Man's Bharat, and the Rich Man's India!
And we all know why.
Tuesday, June 02, 2026
Of Urban Villages in Amritkaal
The recent collapse of a 5 story building in Champa Gali, the now upmarket area of Said ul Ajaib, is sad, but also inevitable in a sense.
Any one familiar with the city of Delhi is possibly also familiar with its many novelties called Urban Villages. Some of Delhis most popular and celebrated addresses are found in these. It started with the famous designer ghetto of Hauz Khas Village popularly called HKV. In the 2000s it was the place to be. Designers stores, Art Galleries, and Pubs and restaurants. Designed by by some of the bigger Architecture practices of the city. Stores like Ogaan, Delhi Art Gallery, Restaurants like Gunpowder, OTB, Yeti and Naivaidyam made it a place to be seen. A great space for young creative and small business owners to make a start and grow.
My initial fascination with the suburb, and its growing popularity, was slowly replaced with a utter fear of the possibility of a fire event, with pubs and cafes on the 3rd with barely 3 foot wide staircases for escape. I did not fancy ending my life there, and completely stopped visiting the area. I cannot recall, but i do remember some fairly fancy pubs there going up in smoke some years later. I have not been there since.
Over time HKV got posh, upmarket and expensive and chocked, space became hard to find, and rents prohibitive. Other similar villages then found their chance at prosperity - Shahpur Jat, Nizamuddin, Chattarpur, Mehrauli, and Said ul Ajaib among them. Easily accessible to the Fancy South Delhi crowd. Cafes, Restaurants and Designer stores started showing up.
Mehrauli - accessible from both Delhi and Gurgaon, with great road connectivity for your fancy luxury car and with a sprinkling of some of Delhis biggest names in hospitality dotting the spaces between designer labels, became a destination for the most expensive and sought after Bridal wear in the country.
Near by in Chatterpur, the humble Dhan Mill, complex that started off as an alt destination, with interesting cafes, and stores, has been building itself into a full fledged mall for the ultra rich, slowly going form “Design-led” to “Money- driven” in its choices of outlets or should we say its command of rental.
All urban villages were not so fortunate. Ayanagar for instance remains potholed waterlogged and fairly un kept, low rental accommodations for staff and working populations who cannot afford rents in Gurugram. Ghitorni and Sultanpur.- on the MG road, a market of factory outlets, and furniture and home decor stores,
There are others too, that transformed much like Kotla Mubarakpur, into very large hardware and building material markets of south Delhi, long before fashion and food were talking points in Delhi.
There is also Humayunpur, that has now transpormed into the undisputed Food Capital of the Delhi and enjoys a reputation with the Genz
And then there are still others like Khanpur, and Said-ul-Ajaib. On the fringes of South Delhi, that could have become rich, expensive , and gentrified areas, but did not. The exact reasons are hard to arrive at.
Designer destination or not, what is common to all these urban villages is a lack of any kind of regulation. The absence of building controls, applicable bye-laws and most of all life and safety regulations.
Building activity in most of the country, is at best a craft exercise - a learned on the job mason becomes a self styled contractor and takes on building work. It is not a regulated profession, with training and licensing. There are no engineering norms, no safety norms and no checks from local authorities. Our urban villages function in a similar manner. In Mehrauli for instance there are apartments blocks with excess of 20 apartments, without any fire fighting provisions and dead ends that would not pass municipal sanction anywhere in the country.
What was one day a 2-floor house, suddenly disappears gets replaced by a 6 floor apartment block of pigeon holes. Built on matchstick columns by a local building hand who now calls himself a contractor. In other places, floors are added on floors, with reckless abandon, to get rents from warehousing, coaching centres, PG accommodation for the thousands of young children hoping to make a a future in the big cities of Delhi. I was one of them in 1998 - staying in Bed Sarai, preparing for my entrance to Architecture School.
The building that collapsed in Said-ul-Ajaib, and forgive my saying so, is not an anomaly. No, whatever you might make of it from the news, from sound bytes and much circulated videos of people talking about having raised alarms and informed authorities - this is how they function and why they are viable places for business.
The lack of regulation and sanctioning, no real landuse definition, and of course huge electoral clout at local levels are part of the equations that keep these places viable. Buildings and lands, like in the case of Mehrauli’s most posh addresses, are owned by well connected, extremely rich and socially important people.
So while the building collapse, and the loss of life is sad, and avoidable, it is just another event in the life of Urban India. And given the age of these villages and their buildings, and growing pressure to make money, I would wager, these will become more frequent in the coming years. And no one is going to do a damn thing about it.
My condolences go out the families that lost so much more than just one fo their children that evening. But in a nation of 1.4 billion 5 lives is a blip on Hashtag Amritkaal and its 5Trillion Dollar economy.
