Shirish Patel, in his life and work, reminded us that relationships need not be transactional or transient, as they tend to be these days.
As a journalist interested in cities, how they work, where they are headed, and especially how they accommodate the needs of a burgeoning 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 provide us with a perspective on not just the “how” but 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 engaged and concerned citizen. And there was no contradiction in being both. For me, the expert also became a mentor and friend. He never talked down to you, even if you asked stupid questions. He represented a fast-disappearing breed, a person who has grace, charm, patience and above all a genuine interest in the person speaking to him, irrespective of their age, gender or class.
The last time I met Shirish was almost exactly a year ago. It was a few months before we got the news of his terminal illness. We sat on the terrace of his charming two-storey house, Nanda Deep, one of the few surviving bungalows on Carmichael Road, surrounded today by new and old high-rise buildings. He reminisced about days when the view from his terrace was not shrouded by these structures – another time, another age, another city.
A conversation with Shirish could range from music to art, to urban 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 that examined the tanks below the garden in response to a petition by local residents. Fortunately for Mumbai, at least for now, good sense has prevailed, and the earlier plan has been abandoned.
Unfortunately, much of Shirish’s sage perspective on several other issues concerning the way Mumbai is developing, have not been heeded by the city’s planners. They do not understand that here was a man who had no vested interest in what he suggested. His interventions, as those of people like Charles Correa, were premised on what was best for most of the residents of Mumbai, and not for 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 redevelopment envisaged for settlements like the BDD chawls in Parel, or Dharavi, or Mumbai’s slums in general, emphasised sustainability and equity.
I learned from him the importance of understanding density, in a city that has become denser with towering high rises, without the prerequisite infrastructure to sustain this. Talking to him I understood why we should question the approach to slum redevelopment that is premised on extracting the maximum value of the land on which slums are located rather than considering what is best for the people who live on it. He reminded us that when the motivation of city planners is land grab, the interests of the poor will never be served. This is precisely what we have witnessed since the early 1990s, when the concept of redeveloping slums, instead of removing them, came about.
A primer on what Shirish Patel believed is in this four-part series that he wrote this year for Scroll, despite his deteriorating health: Unequal Cities. It is a must read for anyone who wants to comprehend what has gone wrong in Mumbai, and how a beautiful city by the sea has been turned into one that has the rich living in gated spaces, and the rest left to deal with crumbling infrastructure. A city that had one of the best public transport systems now has more than 80% who depend on it scrambling to commute to work and back while the privileged are supplied with roads and freeways to accommodate multiple fossil fuel burning private vehicles. And a city where once the sea breeze made the air breathable into one where a shroud of pollution hangs over it, principally affecting 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 provide concerned citizens, not just in Mumbai but beyond, with a blueprint to intervene, to ask questions and to demand to be heard.
