BENGALURU: I have been spending the past few days in a haze of dust, courtesy of a neighbour who is demolishing his house. Or at least, a future neighbour who bought the house in question, and is rebuilding it. Though he has benignly put up blue tarpaulin sheets, there seems to be a fine film of dust on everything inside and outside me. As I cough and sneeze through, eyes teary and nose aflow, I contemplate that demolition is a necessary evil... You need to break down to build anew.
For many days now, the human demolition squad was at work, armed with giant hammers which they clanged against metal and dense cement, again and again, till they could extract the recyclable parts like door and window frames, and a tangle of iron rods. Then came the JCB, that multi-tasking monster which makes human efforts seem frail. As man and machine got to work, I admired the skill of the driver perched inside the juddering JCB as he operated its clumsy claw with a giant-sized drill bit, riding up the rubble and teetering precariously. The task was completed in a day, bricks and beams razed without mercy.
The next day, the JCB scooped up the debris and cleared up the site. The flotsam and jetsam of someone’s life was lifted out and away, as the task of levelling the land began. Bringing down a house always evokes a certain sense of sadness – it was someone’s dream one day, providing security and solace, and a repository of memories, good and bad, for the family. It’s certainly easier to bring down someone else’s house, never one’s own.
Like it’s now become fashionable in some parts of the country to send the giant machines into the houses of certain people who are unpalatable to the ruling classes, often giving them barely enough time to bundle together years of life spent there. In the retribution politics of bully governments, the JCB has become the weapon of choice.
They don’t understand that a home is built with hopes and dreams and sweat and blood. For homes are built by families, not lone rangers who cannot comprehend family values, fears and aspirations. What we need today is family men and women to lead us, only then can we hope that JCBs will stop running riot. And for those who enjoy the heat and dust kicked up by bulldozer politics, there is still time to atone before we are ourselves reduced to dust.