Building under construction. (Image by: Nitya Ramanan)

I’m currently traveling in India and my work brings me to a relatively newer sprawl of the Bengaluru शहर city (shahar). This area यह जगह, (yeh jagah) which has mushroomed पनपा है (panapaa hai) as a response to the IT industry, is peppered with paying guest accommodations. Every morning हर सुबह (har subah) a veritable ocean of young professionals in the IT industry crowds buses and streets सड़क (sadak). In the evenings, this same crowd भीड़ (bheed) pours into restaurants and streetside eateries ठेला (thay-la) which visually outnumber any other kind of business व्यापार (vyaapaar) in the area.

A characteristic of any in-demand location is the feverish construction of more apartment buildings इमारतें (imaaratein) to meet the demand मांग (maang). As I weave my way through narrow neighborhood streets, I can hear the constant sound of hammer हथोड़ा (hathoda) on stones पत्थर (patthar) and feel the fine concrete dust in my hair बाल (baal) , face चेहरा (chehraa), and on my skin त्वचा (tvachaa).

Open sewer (Image by: Nitya Ramanan)

The buildings are being raised खड़े करना (khade karna) at a rapid pace तेज़ गति (tez gati). Infrastructure sadly remains at a standstill, with open sewers खुले नाले (khule naale) and overflowing garbage कचरा (kachra) barely able to keep pace with the growing population आबादी (aabadi).

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