A walk with the boss

We hugged each other a little longer than ever, on the main road, oblivious to the trailing traffic at those late hours. It was a hug of assurance, reconfirmation, and security. I turned back and walked like a queen, the 2 minute walk to my home.

It was one of the most important meetings of my life, a heart to (an experienced) heart talk with my boss. She is not actually a ‘boss’ ‘boss’ but in the organizational hierarchy she is one. I am obliged to have one like that and same is the feeling of almost all my colleagues towards her. The most democratic, flexible, genuinely good at heart person who is sensitive enough about everyone around her; she is the life of most of our work lives.

As already mentioned a couple of times before, this participatory budgeting work is pretty overwhelming and a lot of turmoil generating. There are various kinds of turmoil that one goes through: one about the unusual kinds of work that one has to do as being community facilitator and other, the exposure one gets after doing the planned work which leads to newer realizations about system and life in general.

I am going through both of them (and of course there are many more). But today’s episode started with the later one. The SWM story of the city is making me think and rethink about everything. While writing the article, ‘how is this justice?’, I broke down looking at the cruelty a city dweller does to the surrounding villagers without even intending to do it. Neither is one aware about doing it nor is one sensitive towards the victims. It wasn't the case that I didn't know it before but seeing all the connected dots together as a picture, made its impact on me. I couldn't come out of it easily almost for the entire day neither did I want to distract myself from the feeling. I was more than sure that it makes more sense to feel it and go through the turmoil to come out with more vigor to work. I could also see that I needed some assistance from someone who has gone through such feelings and phases of life.

SM would have been of utmost help. But I could see that she was busy. Also, I feel selfish when I ask of her time for personal reasons. So I suggested a couple of times but didn't assert it. But finally, when we were chatting late evening she suggested that we could even meet. What can be a better thing than that when you have waited for a person for a long! Staying close by at a walking distance matters at such times. Before the hand could cross a quarter of a circle in the clock, we had already set out on our walk together.

So many things did we speak… the questions that I had about sustainable cities, the inertia that I am facing in the CF work, the stereotypes that I have in my mind about various people that I should be meeting, the fight between the rational me and the stereotyping (irrational) me, her experiences as novice (that I am today), the ideas of newer work, newer ideas to take the current work ahead, the people that we connect with and the once which we don’t but should be connecting with, the importance of emotional connection with the work and the colleagues…     

I could see myself getting better. She was in no hurry even at that hour. She waited patiently for me to say that ‘we could go now’. So much space and time! She proved me wrong for a sentence that I wrote to partner in the afternoon, ‘Everyone seems to be busy.’ I know she is doing so many things at a time and still nowhere shows that she is busy and when mentioned, she actually modestly says that she is not so busy.  

On the way back, I was wondering aloud that how do people who don’t connect with their work and the colleagues manage to remain themselves? She resonated with the feeling and shared X’s example of how X did a non-connecting job and finally left it to do so many socially inclined activities. SM verbalized her fear about how does X remain saner after working so much. I guess, we go through all these phases of non-sensitivity, sensitivity, guilt, non-action, finally action without guilt based on rational sensitivity.

Thanks SM for walking me through the mud of my thoughts to the clean blue waters of action! May everyone get a boss like you!

How is this justice?

Solid waste management (SWM) seems to be the most sensitive issue after water in the city context. In villages especially if you have farms all your wet waste goes to the farm directly. No service of waste collection is necessary in such setting. But what happens to the waste generated by every citizen in the city? Why isn’t the onus of taking care of the generated waste come on the respective citizen? Why does the PMC have to provide this service?

Looking at the cities, every time, I remember Shumaker’s small is beautiful. The forces of making the city big are so big that how do we adhere to the small? So while growing in terms of population, area, economy, products and services the cities move away from the basic natural services available and necessary for the survival of life, something like water, raw material for food. It’s such a stark contrast which very few urban citizens realize.

SO our water comes from at least 50 km away from the dams built by drowning hundreds of villages and shifting another hundreds and  rehabilitating very few of them. Our grains, veggies and fruits come from the nearby villages and national, international places, thanks to transport facilities and LPG (liberalisation, privatization and globalisation). So the 2 basic needs of water and food are taken care of not by us but by somebody else who get low and uncertain prices for the farm produce, curse of the middle class if the prices rise beyond a certain limit. The third need of shelter, Not Abudana but Ashiyana of the cities are built by the bricks made by irreversible processing of top soil most important for growing of the food.

So we rip the natural resources available in the countryside and become ‘rich’ in the cities. What do we give back to them? What do we have, to give back? The sewage starting from our toilets directly connected to the rivers which flows to these villages supplying water for drinking, washing and farming directly (without any cleaning plants in between) and sometimes if the Sewage Treatment Plants are working generously, a good dose of chlorine to kill the bacteria from the black water which also can harm the other life in the river. The un-segregated waste we generate finds its way on the fertile lands of these villages making the villagers and the waste pickers susceptible to all kinds of health hazards.

How is this justice? We take from them all that is good and in return give them all that is bad.

What is the solution? Leave the cities? Is that possible?

How about making the cities sustainable? Is that even conceivable? What does that mean at the value level and at the practice level?