“It was so easy to sell anything to the common
people, if one could add an element of magic and some religion into it”...Anand Neelakantan.
I am always happy to
choose or say being able to choose words of wisdom when they are from our
fellow countryman, as in this country wisdom is rarely resepcted. And no wonder
the author is none other than Mr. Neelkantan, who is author of the Bahubali
Saga which made money wheel spinning for the makers of the movie! Though the
words speaks about success of Bahubali series & for ages the same
formula Disney is running successfully
at global level! But in our country this
formula isn’t restricted to just entertainment, when its dealing with common
man of this country! Take it any
field of life may it be electing their rulers to fighting a war against virus
our leaders have used formula of religion & magic, extensively from ages,
making the common man feel happy at least for a moment to forget his or her
sufferings! And when its matter
of home then the more use of the formula as recently one news about home loans,
caught my attention & it made mem remember the words from Mr Neelkantan
about common man. Though the rulers forget that this formula is fine with movies
as its three hours time which common man wants to enjoy but when its dealing
with life issues then one needs to give much more than just magic &
religion. Because actually the common man has only one religion & that is
“limitations”! If
you are confused, then tell me whom you call a common man, is he the one who
can buy whatever he (read as she also) can buy in the mall or dine at any
restaurant without looking at right side of menu card or can get admission to
his daughter (or son) in the school of his choice or can buy any car he want to
drive or he is the one who can buy a home at any location he wants & of any
size & loaded with all the amenities, will you call such guy a common man? Well, most will probably say yes to all the
qualities but the last, I am sure! Joke apart, what I meant is a common man
is the one who has limitations on doing everything whatever he (or she) wants
to do in his life & most of the time
that limitation is in the form of budget i.e. money constraints! Now tell
me, am I wrong in defining a common man
as if you can do all of above mentioned things at your will, then all such
things needs power either in the form of position or money or both & with
power & money at your service can you be still labelled as a common man?
And then we are a developing
country so the difference between upper class & lower class is more intense
here (I am referring to buying power only when I say class) as I am not saying
common man is necessarily should be poor only by money power. Unlike western
countries we have two types of common man here , one is real poor common man which
comes from a class who survives more by their physical natured jobs or say
skills such as drivers, security watchman, cook in restaurant, a plumber &
many such but not a beggar definitely! And then
there is another version of common man in our country, i.e. “Middle or Higher
Middle Class Common Man”, he is educated & may not be doing any physical
skill job. But he is the one who
has no voice at any policy level especially which are related to him, is also
one aspect. And this type of the common man can be a small business-man,
professional, teacher, salaried person & yes he can be even a small scale
builder too! The common factor between both these versions of common man
is, one, they hardly have any say with govt; two, no govt actually cares for
them & three; they both have limitations on most fronts of the life! And yes there are two more common factors & prominent
ones i.e. most of these common men from both the versions are always under some
debt & live on EMIs. And then both of these common men are either homeless
or searching for own home or get settled in a home which is illegal or with
adjustments of basic necessities of the life! About the earlier aspect i.e.
loan, the poor class common man gets succumbed to loan sharks (Sahukar or
Pathans) at very heavy interest rates as no so called big banks (are some names
in banking reading this?) don’t even allow this class to enter in their posh
branch offices leave apart giving them loans. As well govt bankers are also reluctant
as they don’t get the security in a manner they want from this class, so the
only option poor class common man is to take loan from some Bhai or Lala! And
about middle class common man, banks loves them as they are best clients when
its repayment of loan & then they agrees to whatever terms & condition
the banks put in the loan documents they feel banks are like god giving them
blessings by sanctioning the loan!
Well, now it’s not
the common mans situation in the country
which is essence of this sharing which you must be wondering but the
last common factor between two versions of the common man i.e. housing, is the
subject I want to share. But before that I felt it necessary to put forward the
scene of common man as or else one wouldn’t understand the graveness of the
home situation for the common man, in this city as well most cities of the
country. Now let’s see the scene of poor common man’s home front as most of
these people settles for slums (sorry guys but that’s fact) or illegal
settlements like gunthewari (illegal small plots layouts). Reason is simple
they just don’t have enough money to buy a flat or else willingly nobody will
live in slums as it’s like Ghettos of modern world, only thing is unlike Jews,
here they are allowed to move in & out of these Ghettos for their daily
chores of earning. But life is nightmare here, if you don’t believe then all
those who are reading my this sharing go & stay for one full day in any
slum nearby your so called cozy home & then write what you felt about the experience!
Now, the issue is how we provide these poor common men homes they want in their
budget in city as they all are dependent on the higher or middle class common
men or rich men for their earnings so they have to be nearby residences of
these classes or at least have a connectivity to their residences which isn’t
available even our Smarty City is a fact! So question is when govt knows these
basic problems of poor common man, why govt is not solving the same instead
putting it on builders to provide homes in cheaper rates! As well why all the
polices of SRA i.e. slum redevelopment has failed in past & why it’s just
connected to TDR generation, why can’t govt makes a fund at central level &
use it to build homes at plots of slum & sale the remaining portion of plot
for commercial or other such purpose & make the proposal viable by joining
hands with builders instead allowing them alone to deal with slum issues! I
salute to the brain which tied slum development with TDR generation as no one ever
thought what if the TDR rates won’t increase or the parent plot’s development
itself if comes in problem. Because TDR is like a parasite thing, only
if real estate on clear or say open for development plots is in demand TDR will
be in demand & then height was tagging TDR rates with ready recknoer rates
which made few slums as blue chips & few slums labelled as dumped scripts,
depending up on the location. I think priority should be development of
every slum, so come up with viable & sustainable & fast result giving
solution. And second is not allowing new slums to form at any cost as if you allow
the there will be residents to move in as migration of new poor class is ongoing
process is a fact so demand for new slums will always be there! Means we need
new homes apart from existing slum dwellers for this poor common man version,
is a fact or all the cities will be engrossed by ocean named slums!
And now about middle/ higher middle class homes
i.e. which we call as ral estate. Here
also if you see, the rich class means with buying capacity of Rs 1 crore or
more, in city like Pune, they can dictate terms & buy mostly anywhere they
want to, but the issue is with the common men whose budget fluctuates between
Rs 30 lakhs to Rs 75 lakhs! Like poor common man, they too can’t drift far away from city as like
poor common man this class is also attached to city for daily things & then
along with their own jobs they have other issues like their kids’ schools,
shopping, recreation etc. Here the two
classes differs as poor common man’s only issue is a roof on his families heads
& he don’t mind where & how it comes, so slum is ok for him. Problem
with middle class poor man is he is very much law abiding & can’t dare to
buy illegal home as well he has social fear factor also i.e. “Loag kya
kahenge?”, so he can’t reside in slum! Means what
society will say? So the middle class is in real soup as they can’t live in
slum, can’t buy illegal flats nor can move far away from city as connectivity
& infrastructure is a problem. So they try to earn more by putting all
possible work hours, so they can get a job which can match EMI equation & finally
get a home somehow in their limited budget!
Here
again govt & many people blames builders for making homes beyond the budget
of even higher middle class common man but what then the govt or the so called
leaders of the businesses doing about it? Rather joke is on
one side country’s top financial names (and rulers) are advising builders to
lower the rates of flats, but on other side their own banks (including govt
banks) are asking common man to resubmit salary slips to disburse the next instalments
of already sanctioned loans! Wonderful hypocrites’ we are, aren’t we? And then the
govt which makes poor common man to leave his native place & live in slums
of the Smart City, the very same govt turns a blind eye towards demands of real
estate about infrastructure development evenly in all parts of the city as well
connectivity, which is the only way to make more homes available in the middle
class common man’s budget!
I think it’s high time for our rulers to open
their closed eyes & awake on housing front & make some real good
policies & implement it & that’s not some atomic science but common sense
& a will, is all what is needed! Till we don’t work on it, every day of the common
man from both the classes will keep on dying either in search of his home or
even in his so called own home! And govt is free to hang some scapegoat for
these deaths in the need of a home!
Well, to end I will conclude with a scene from
our beloved Dada Kondke's one movie Ram Ram Gangaram: Ashok Saraf is shown as a butcher in a village
& as it happens in most villages on Sunday mornings, the villagers used to
take their hen (murgi) to the butcher for skinning it. To every such villager
Ashok Saraf is used to ask, “katu ki nahi katu?” (means, shall I kill this hen
or not?) & only after getting the answer Kato i.e. kill, he worked his
knife on the hen to kill it & skin it. Seeing this, Dada Kondke asks him, “yaar
Mamhdya, when you know the villagers gets their hen to you to kill, why you to
ask every one that stupid question, katu ki nahi katu?” The butcher Ahsok Saraf
smiles & answers, “when they say Katu i.e. kill, the sin of killing the hen
goes on the respective villagers head & not mine!”
Do I need to explain
the characters’ role (govt & builders) about providing homes to the common
man in the cities after reading the story, adios with this note!
--
Sanjay
Deshpande
Sanjeevani
Dev.
Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..
Please do visit my
blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)
Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way(Click link below)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345
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