Sunday, June 30, 2013

Redeveloping the sky

The sudden swell in redevelopment scares me. I sit at my window and gaze outside and I can see greenery and a beautiful, these days slightly overcast, sky. And yes both my window and I are located in Mumbai. I happen to be amongst the few lucky ones to have a real big garden view and not those miniature ones in building compounds. But apart from the greenery what I really enjoy is staring into the sky. The sky with its changing colours and various dimensions. It is pitch black around 4 am occasionally orangish black and it continues to remain so until suddenly sometime around 6 am its oozing bright sunshine. I always find this transition from dark to light sudden. I may keep peering into the sky and yet it catches me unawares. I don’t have a view of the sunrise, may be that’s why I don’t feel the transition. As the day progresses it keeps changing hue. Every time I look out I love to gaze at the marvelous expanse and as night pours in darkness floods my view. I hate to switch on the light. It seems shallow before the beauteous sunlight and its varied shades that I have been enjoying through the day. But nature has its way. And darkness has to come and go. However, it is not this hindrance that worries me. There is a building that is being redeveloped diagonally opposite mine. Along with the sky I have also been seeing its progress as floor after floor gets added on. And now that it has reached a substantial height it has begun to come in the way of my clear sky view. It continues to grow taller. The coconut tree just outside my window is now panned by this grey structure and not the grey rainy sky. I realize when it is completed I would have lost a substantial chunk of sky view. Then I console myself to change my angle thus effectively throwing the building out of my line of vision. I can see the sky again without any hindrance blocking my view. And it’s beautiful as ever. Towards evening I can clearly see its changing colour. It is orange at times and maroon at others and if I don’t switch on the light the house is partially dark yet it is filled with a dim reddish light. It’s a completely different hue. I love basking in it. And again the switch from this light to dark seems sudden. All gone, the tubelights must come on. Against a dark twinkling expanse of the sky the ghostly silhouette of the under construction building stands tall. Reasserting itself and taunting that all of the remaining buildings are also going to be redeveloped into way taller structures. Contracts are already being drawn up. Some days more and it will have tall companions. And when I look out next I will get to see only snatches of the sky from between the space distancing these tall buildings. My sky is going I will be left with only the greenery of the garden panned by tall buildings.

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