Shirish Patel has reminded us in his life and work that relationships do not have to be transactional or transient, as they often are today.
As a journalist interested in cities, how they work, where they are going, and especially how they meet the needs of a growing urban poor population, there could be no one better than Shirish Patel to educate you. He went beyond his background as a structural engineer and urban planner to give us a perspective not only on the ‘how’ but also the ‘why’ of urban chaos and misgovernance, as exemplified in a city like Mumbai.
Yet Shirish was more than a ‘source’ or an ‘expert’. He was a deeply committed and concerned citizen. And it wasn’t contradictory to be both. For me, the expert also became a mentor and friend. He never talked down to you, even when you asked stupid questions. He represented a rapidly disappearing breed, a person with grace, charm, patience and, above all, a genuine interest in the person speaking to him, regardless of age, gender or class.
The last time I met Shirish was almost exactly a year ago. It took a few months before we got the news of his terminal illness. We were sitting on the terrace of his charming two-storey house, Nanda Deep, one of the few remaining bungalows on Carmichael Road, today surrounded by new and old high-rises. He reminisced about the days when the view from his terrace was not shrouded by these structures – another time, another era, another city.
A conversation with Shirish can range from music, to art, to city planning. That evening, he explained in detail why the municipal corporation’s plan to replace the over 100-year-old reservoir under Mumbai’s iconic Hanging Garden on Malabar Hill was foolhardy. Two people from his team were part of the group of experts who examined the tanks under the garden in response to a petition from local residents. Fortunately for Mumbai, at least for the time being, common sense has prevailed and the earlier plan has been abandoned.
Unfortunately, many of Shirish’s wise views on several other issues regarding the way Mumbai is developing have gone unheeded by the city’s planners. They don’t understand that here was a man who had no interest in what he was proposing. His interventions, like those of people like Charles Correa, were based on what was best for the majority of Mumbai residents, and not on the vanity or convenience of an already privileged minority.
Shirish’s interventions in the urban debate, on a coastal road that benefits a small percentage of the city’s population, on the envisaged redevelopment of settlements such as the BDD chawls in Parel, or Dharavi, or the slums of Mumbai in general, emphasized sustainability and equality.
I learned from him the importance of understanding density, in a city that has become denser with towering high-rises, without the necessary infrastructure to sustain it. When I spoke to him, I understood why we had to question the approach to slum redevelopment, which focuses on extracting the maximum value from the land on which the slums are located, rather than thinking about what is best is for the people who live on it. He reminded us that when the motivation of city planners is land grabbing, the interests of the poor will never be served. This is exactly what we have seen since the early 1990s, when the concept of redeveloping slums, rather than removing them, emerged.
An introduction to what Shirish Patel believed is in this four-part series he wrote this year Roledespite his deteriorating health: Unequal cities. It’s a must read for anyone who wants to understand what went wrong in Mumbai, and how a beautiful city by the sea turned into a city where the rich live in enclosed spaces, and the rest have to cope with crumbling infrastructure. A city that had one of the best public transport systems now has more than 80% of people depending on it, rushing to commute to work and back, while the privileged are provided with roads and highways to support multiple fossil fuel-based to house burning private vehicles. And a city where once the sea breeze made the air breathable has become a city where a pall of pollution hangs over, especially those who cannot afford the luxury of air conditioning or even a roof over their heads.
Men like Shirish Patel are not easily replaceable. Fortunately, we have his work and his ideas that live on. They are relevant and offer concerned citizens, not only in Mumbai but also beyond, a blueprint to intervene, ask questions and demand to be heard.