Growing up with Vizag

Growing up with Vizag

My article in the Times of India, Vizag Edition, 12 February 2017

Some children grow up too soon. One day they are crawling then learning to walk, and then they are running, knocking things down, falling, hurting themselves, getting up, playing, laughing and then surprisingly disagreeing with us. Before we realise they have become young adults with minds of their own. To parents and grandparents this is a mix of pure joy, concern, alarm, annoyance, frustration and pride in equal measure, sometimes all together. Before long they are going to school, college and taking up a job. They get married and move on. Soon they become adults in their own right and we can scarcely recognise them. But this article is not about children. This is about our city, our Vizag.

Infant years

For those who have seen Vizag grow up we can appreciate the stages it has gone through. We have the memories from our childhood of Vizag’s infancy. We remember the narrow lanes of old town, near the sea, where homes were separated by compound walls but everyone knew each other and we all studied in a few neighbourhood schools and played on the streets, playgrounds and beaches till our parents came looking for us.  Some lived in far flung residential areas like NAD, Gyanapuram, Gopalpatnam, Marriapalem, Yendada, Seethamadhara and so on. They were palm lined semi urban villages towards the north and the west of Vizag which later merged with Vizag. There were also slums in many parts of the town, migrant labourers and fisher folk lived in thatched huts in these densely populated areas and many slept outside in the hot summer months. Every summer there would be incidents of fire ravaging these huts leaving these poor folk with their meager belongings homeless. Some lived in Maharanipeta or Waltair Uplands in gracious bungalows. Houses were spread apart, apartments were just two-storeyed buildings, and almost everyone had trees in their compounds.  These folk worked hard during the day and in the evenings they went to Clubs, played golf, bent elbows at the bar and hunted wild boar and deer. Not necessarily in that order.

Difficult childhood

Well we were happy with Vizag most of the time. Except when it rained and the open drains overflowed into the streets, or when we placed trunk calls to Hyderabad and it took three hours to set up a connection. We were unhappy when we had to go to the railway station and stand in line for three hours to make a reservation. We were unhappy when we had pot holed roads and when travel by road even to Vizianagaram, Srikakulam or Chodavaram was quite an adventure.  We were unhappy when water supply was erratic and we waited expectantly at taps to get a few buckets of water or when we drew water from wells with rope and bucket. Or when we had to pay a deposit and wait five years to buy a scooter. Industrialization began to accelerate, workers poured into the city, the population expanded rapidly, housing needs did not catch up with the growth, physical infrastructure, like roads, parks, drainage and solid waste management all lagged behind.

Troubled youth

Around 12 years ago as underground drainage, fibre optic networks and water piping were laid the city was dug up everywhere. The trenches were left open and mounds of excavated earth were heaped on the road sides. The public, accustomed to years of inconvenience took these troubles in their stride. The local administration of that time was still old fashioned, they did not bother about the mess and contractors bribed the officials and had a field day. Vizag was poorly administered those days. Construction work was accelerating everywhere, with low sensitivity towards heritage, architects borrowed styles from here and there and Vizag’s face became somewhat confused. During the same time garbage and rubble piled up everywhere and Vizag began to look like a never ending work-in-progress. This was the troubled youth phase of Vizag. Yet we Vizagites loved Vizag and just like we tolerated the shortcomings of our loved ones we overlooked the faults of Vizag; probably because there was no one to complain to.

The young adult

With rapid urbanisation, it had become imperative that cities like Vizag all over the country needed to change to cope with the urban growth and meet the aspirations of the citizens.  In 2005 under the JNURM initiative the central government earmarked Rs. 66,000 crore over a seven-year period up to March 2012 to help cities improve their civic service levels. Later the government extended the tenure of the mission till March 2014. In that year Andhra Pradesh split into two to form Telengana and Andhra Pradesh. In October that year Hudhud struck us like a fist in the belly, knocking the wind out of us. Adversity strengthens the brave and before long Vizag was up on her feet and running. Then by happy coincidence along came the smart city initiative and the IFR. Things began to change perceptibly. The city administration led by a new breed of officials became more professional. Garbage handling improved, streets were surfaced, footpaths were tiled, trees were planted and walls were painted. Visually Vizag began to look better. Unfortunately most of the developments are still in the “high visibility showcase areas” of Vizag. However it is a sign of change and must surely result in a chain reaction of development. Citizens now feel that it is time for the administration to concentrate on the most poorly developed areas. It is time to develop Vizag for Vizagites everywhere.

Time for maturity

Vizag is a great city to live in. The point is driven home every time we return to Vizag after travelling to other Indian cities. We must recognise that Vizag is now in the brash and ambitious stage of its life cycle.  But it is easy to ruin it. Under pressure to move faster, industrialize more, give away more land, maximize revenue we may be shooting ourselves in the foot. Some influential thinkers in government talk of 50% of the population living in cities in the next 20 years! As if intense urbanization was a panacea for development.  They do not say how we will replace farmers and farm lands that are required to feed the population. Others talk of cities like Vizag becoming cities that can be milked for revenue. But that is an “udder” matter.  The CM is focusing on Vizag and every official will want to prove how Vizag can be developed by seducing investors.  Conferences and events are being held every month. Hype and hullabaloo is the norm. However there is no free meal. If we over exploit Vizag, it will become a hell-hole within a decade and many of the now new parts of the city will go into an end-of-life cycle mode eventually becoming a polluted, crowded, slum city. Great cities can beat the end-of-life-cycle by constantly reinventing themselves. This is when Vizagites must grow up in tandem with their city and show some assertiveness. As the Dalai Lama said “The purpose of our lives is to be happy”; a simple profound statement that our city must adopt for its citizens. Now, excuse me, I have to attend to my grandson.