Nangla's Delhi

Someone says, "It has passed. What remains of the dwelling will remain." But the next moment someone says, "No, it will all be broken." Time is being relatively easier on those who have documents of proof of residence. That is why, even in a time like this, they are thinking about earning something. Someone is selling grocery, someone vegetables, someone meat. These are now being sold from homes. The shops are all gone. Items are now a little more expensive than they were yeterday, when the bulldozers hadn't come. A small way in which what time is snatching away from them can be pulled back, recovered. But for others, this is another tax they have to pay over and above what is already being demanded from them by circumstances.

Today there is silence in Nangla. There is no sound of a house being broken, even.

A little girl, sitting with others her age says, "We will leave from here. We will have a new school. My father has said he will buy me a new pen to take to school. But I won't play there. All of you come to my house, and then we will play! I will give you sweets when you come."

Another girl replies, "Really? I know you won't give us any sweets."
The first one says (there is a bowl in her hands), "See, didn't I give you all water to drink today? Come to my house and I will give you sweets."
A boy spoke now, "Arre Jhumri, you will be going somewhere else, and all of us will have homes elsewhere. You will go to your, and we will go to ours. They will be far away from each other."
Another girl said, "Naku's house has just been broken. No one else's house will break now. Mumy was saying our house will not be broken. I will go to school. Everyone will get new, beautiful houses made. My school uniform has become spoiled, now I will get new ones."

I was standing a short distance from this group of little children, when I heard a voice from behind me. A 17 year old boy said, "The loss has been ours and it is a spectacle for others." I walked away. I know there is pain in everyone's heart. I know that this is how I will be when this happens with me, and it will.

Someone is saying, "They will cut off the water supply in one or two days now. First the electricity, and then water. If there is no water or electricity, then what will we do here? The State will do anything to make us run away from here."

Some police women, standing by the wall of the temple are talking in muffled tones with each other. "If it were up to me, I would have donated this place to these people. Poor people, where will they go?"

Another replied, "Oh be quiet, you donator! If these clusters of homes had been in your posession, you would not have been standing here. Money is something, which one plays with by hiding it. When you have money you will change." Then she laughed and said, "You know someone is getting married here. Whenever someone from their family passes by us they mutter something under their breath. They are all burned up from inside."

Another said, "They should know this is our job. We will do what the government asks us to do."

They were chatting, with smiles on their faces, to rid themselves of the boredom they were feeling, to deal with thier tiredness.

Everyone in Nangla is being separated from each other. That is why they are going to each other, asking each other how they are, where they are going, asking them their new addresses, and saying, "God knows if we will ever meet again".

Even today there were small groups of women at some doors, talking to each other. Maybe they want to spend the left over time with their friends, smiling, chatting. That is why the small skirmishes one witnesses on the lanes, near the taps where everyone comes to fill water, because of what their children have done, are not there today. They have got lost somewhere.