On the evening of April 7, the Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) at Fort, Mumbai, launched Mumbai Reader 2016, a compendium of essays and articles on a range of topics related to everyday life in Mumbai: development, transport, education, dance bars, heritage, slums, malls, and more.
These were originally written in English for newspapers, academic journals, websites, and research publications by various people including lawyer Gautam Patel, urban planner Siddharth Pandit, educationist Anand Teltumbde, sociologist Shilpa Phadke, professor Maya Pandit, and journalists Naresh Fernandes, Smruti Koppikar, Nidhi Jamwal, and Sameera Khan.
UDRI compiled them for Mumbai Reader 2015, and it took a year to get these translated into Marathi for Mumbai Reader 2016.
The book also includes fresh material — a selection of topical newspaper clippings, and a large number of colour photographs — that did not appear in the English version.
It was published as part of UDRI’s official mandate “to make Mumbai an inclusive city which is humane and balances its cosmopolitan cultural heritage and social fabric with equitable growth and efficient infrastructure” (quoted from UDRI’s brochure).
Mumbai Reader 2016 has been edited by Rahul Mehrotra, Pankaj Joshi, and Dhara Mehta, and designed by Gufran Shaikh. It has been supported by the Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust and the Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation.
The launch was hosted at Kitab Khana bookstore at Flora Fountain, and it was celebrated with a conversation between writer-translator Shanta Gokhale and Datta Iswalkar, mill workers’ rights activist and president of the Action Committee for Housing for All.
“The common citizen does not look at the city as something that has been created,” said Gokhale.
“They think of their urban surroundings as a given. If there is a temple here, okay, it’s here. If there is a garbage dump there, okay, it’s there. That is their approach. How did these things come to be where they are? This is something that citizens need to take note of in the same way that they are engaged in theatre, films, and music.”
Iswalkar said, “Everyone wants a beautiful Mumbai, but that cannot happen on its own. We have to work towards it. The city has changed so much in the past 20 years, and it will continue to change, whether we like that or not. Real estate is so expensive in this city that 70 per cent of the population cannot even buy a house for themselves. There is a lot in this book for young people to learn from.”
UDRI has been publishing Mumbai readers since 2006, in English, Marathi and Hindi. Joshi, executive director, UDRI, said, “There is a lot of writing in Marathi on art, literature, and culture, but very little on urban design. That is the gap we want to fill. Marathi is the language of corporators, administrators, decision makers and decision influencers. And if we want to have a dialogue with them, it is important that we speak their language. At the same time, the kind of Marathi we have used is not formal or bureaucratic. It is accessible to common people. We brought some very sensitive translators on board, and they have done a wonderful job.”
Gokhale said, “This book features different styles of writing and a variety of perspectives on the city. That is what makes it dynamic and lovely. Also, this book has been designed in a manner that is visually appealing. That, I think, is important for a book that aims to contribute to urban discourse.
“Most often, serious books look drab because they are poorly produced. Even if the content is excellent, people do not feel like picking them up.”
Mehta, research associate, UDRI said, “We like to think of this as a book for people like us — who travel by train to reach their workplace, who are worried about the situation of hawkers, who care about the heritage structures on the urban landscape.”
Joshi said that previous editions of Mumbai Reader have been used as curricular material in courses at the University of Mumbai and at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University in Ahmedabad.
“Our objective is to be pedagogically relevant, and we want to reach out to more educational institutions so that young people get more involved in thinking about their cities, and the people who live there. For example, bar dancers. After the recent Supreme Court judgement, it has been established that you cannot deprive anyone of their livelihood. When students begin to read and talk about these issues, their relationship with the city will change.”
The writer tweets on: @chintan_connect
