A Funny but realistic take on development !

Malgudi series-9

We have quite often seen, no matter how the economy is going the real estate is never cheap and probably never will in future ! There is a reason why i say this, when i was growing up in the early 90's a plot 30 x 40 in a decent area (Not in bengaluru) would cost for instance 20,000 INR where as anyone would need 3-4 lakh to construct a decent house on it ! It made real sense then to have a home of your own in a plot of our own !

Fast forwarding to current times a plot 30 x 40 in a decent locality (Not in Bengaluru) costs 12-20 lakhs and the construction of house somewhere between 25-30 lakhs ( assuming 2 lakhs per 100 sq feet). If you were to buy the same in bengaluru especially in the so called old city, a plot ( if available) would cost anywhere between 60 lakhs to 1.2 crore and afterwhich if you are still left with some money you can think of putting a fence or compund around it, let alone constructing a house !

If you are salaried or small time businessman or a decent contractor who makes enough money to save, you obviously think of  buying your own home. Looking at the prices mentinoned above it may be difficult for the average middle class and salaried to reach anywhere near,hence you are left with no option but to be in a home which you call yours, though you neither own the land nor the skies ! which means you agree to stay in a flat to be compromised for an independent house on a plot ! (flats are more sought after nowadays and are a new status symbol with those people who can even afford an independent house !)

A city like bengaluru which has the ability to grow in all directions makes it more interesting for greedy realtors to pick their share of pie or snatch to be precise ! The growing bengaluru can be compared to " Connecting the dots game" where the dots signifies hundreds of already existing villages and connecting them is through building apartments and other commercial establishments without any plan in place for vehicular movement, sewage, water supply, parks, waste dumping, rain water harvesting, graveyards etc.

More often than not an investor let's say a software company gathers a few acres of land in the outskirts of the city from the nexus of real estate aggregator, builds its campus and starts operating, Within few years thousands start working in its campuses and that creates a huge demand for housing, commercial shops, recreation facilities, schooling etc. hence a mad rush to fulfilling them begins and development starts helter skelter ! In such a scenario land prices go up sharply turning the villagers into millionaire overnight, who were in such an anticipation from a long time (in most of the cases) who anyway tend to already have plans to spend the fortune on lavish marriages, gold, SUV's etc. which is considered as the symbol of dominance and showoff !

In some cases because of the very high land prices forward thinking companies buy and keep hundreds of acres of land with the help of the same realtor nexus in the vicinities of the city for future expansion ! No one knows when does future arrive anyway but they buy ! The nexus of real estate makes sure that such a news is widely publicised with company names and make sure they aggregate more and more land prior to such announcements mostly from the farmers who are not really aware of how prizes could be in the near future and what plans government has for that particular area ! If anyone denies to sell his land either he will be offered more or made an offer he doesn't refuse (the godfather way-on the gun point !).

In most of the cases most of these realtors are local politicians or their kith and kin who are very well aware of the future prospects of land or sometimes create prospects themselves by fooling larger public !

In anticipation of great development such aggregated land is sold by the Realtors to builders to come up with apartments, villaments, villas, plots publicising excessively with eye catchy adds like "Near to the proposed so and so campus " " Proposed Satellite ring road" " Proposed peripheral ring road"  etc. fooling people but equally tempting and forcing them to buy ! ( Despite all these adds Bangalore is seeing a steady rise is un occupied properties starting from 2008 - please refer to Moneycontrol article " Despite remaining unsold, apartment prices refuse to come down in Bangalore " dated 15 August, 2013)

Here they also make sure that the cost of the empty plot is much higher than the cost of the flat that they construct making independent plots always costlier for the common man ! The customer who is in denial in the beginning is forced to buy these properties just because the economics of having an independent house doesn't fit their pay check anymore even when both husband and wife are working !

The nexus makes sure that a hype is created by bribing transport officials to sanction BMTC buses to the route once in a while to show that the region is connected well and is not in no man's land ! The builders make sure that paid articles are skillfully written in the property pages of the newspapers explaining the promise the area or the place possesses in near future and how it is the most promising investment and growth destination etc. Excessive adds in the local TVs promising free site visits in air conditioned vehicles, Hoardings kept every 100 meters about the property, specialities, and amenities. BDA, BMRDA, CREDAI, BIAPPA and Bank approvals they have got to show how clean they are !

In the age of excessive Internet usage these properties make their own websites, upload their plan, hire some proxy bloggers /opinion makers who write more and more good stuff on line about the builder, developer and the property attracting more tech savvy crowd. NRI's who save money in great deal usually get carried away by these mirage of growth stories from a distance and invest in couple of properties hoping it will turn into a fortune soon ! But the sad part is these properties never gets occupied by its owners unless rented which doesn't generally happen in the case of NRI's, increasing the no of unoccupied residences creating false demand which further enhances the blind growth story ! (This is explained with greater detail in the first post article dated April 30, 2015 " 1.2 crore vacant homes-This one number tells us all that is wrong with indian real estate")

Competing with the above, many more companies pledge to buy land in the vicinity provided they get it at discounted prices especially if it is government land or given speedy approvals with smoother transitions from land owners to the company ! Here the nexus of Realtors again creeps in who work closely with politicians, land owners, builders and companies to make further aggregation of land and the cycle continues !

In the entire process no body cares about the availability of water in the area, growing requirements, Main and sub road connectivity, sewage systems, movement of heavy vehicles, further expansion possibilities, livability of the habitat etc. People who want to buy a home are in full mood and anything favourable only goes into their ears ! Buyers generally in metros are not worried about whether the land has any litigation from land owners ? Whether the ground water table is adequate for now and future ? Whether all the claims made are real, practical and legitimate ? whether all the necessary clearances been taken etc.

The big buyers who are large corporations sometimes aggressively buy litigated land knowingly or unknowingly taking risks and planning to mitigate them post buying by appointing shrewed lawyers who can turn the table any side ! As they say " as long as the vulnerable exists so long does the cheater co-exists !" perhaps in more numbers !

In this way everyone jumps the bandwagon of development which is appalling !

World environment day : Are we writing our own obituary ?

Malgudi series-8

When i try to put down my thoughts on nature i am reminded of these beautiful and meaningful lines by one of the modern american poets joyce kilmer who says " I think i will never see a poem as beautiful as a tree !" this expression is just sufficient to understand what nature should mean to all of us.

A tree is not just a part of nature but nature itself ! Many of us argue that we don't see sparrows now a days because of the Radiowaves (radiations) out there but forget to realise we have cut down 80 % of the trees over the last ten years in our own garden city and many cities alike, the lakes which were 280 in early 1960's have dropped to meagre 40 today , out of which only 17 are in decent state !

The CO2 levels in places especially in the ORR (outer ring road) area is 50 % more than the rest of the city and the fluoride levels in borewell water is whooping 10 times more than the actuals, the ground water table has dropped from 100-150 feet in 1990's to 1000 feet today and most of the time smells sewage because of the unseen seepages where waste water percolates into the ground to join the fresh water stream ! 
Forget about mining or coal mafia , the water and sand mafia for consumption and construction respectively are more than any mafia we could think of which starts from the corporator level and ends in the corridors of the vidhana souda !

It is really a pity that we drive cars alone and complain about traffic, throw garbage helter skelter and complain about cleanliness, we don't plant a seed but complain about cutting of trees, know so much about the no of tigers left or the percentage of forest cover dwindling year on year but never contribute in any way !

I remember as  a child going to bannerghatta national park and at the very entrance they had a chart in which it was written " Lift this chart and you would see the most dangerous animal in the world ! ", i was curious and made all sought of guesses but could not resist , when i lifted the chart i saw myself in the mirror ! Probably till date this was the most eye opening slap i have ever got !

Despite all the statistics i have mentioned above, i would like to share one thing " These statistics are the ones which are mis leading us and are meaningless sometimes !" know why ? because they don't say much ! yes , most of us read about all types of pollution right from primary school till college and even later on, but do nothing ! Does this syllabi " Inculcate love for nature ??? " A big no !  

This was recently discussed in social media with reference to a white man's article on the subject, but this was told by a kannada writer by name " Poornachandra tejaswi " who himself was a avid bird watcher-photographer, writer of great prominence, fish catcher decades back ! 

Some of the species he observed were not reported anywhere and were new findings all together for instance in his " Parisarada kathe " a collection of his articles on nature, he reports observing an insect which folds the leaf quickly from the tree and throws it down which resembles paan !  Tejaswi wrote about science more than any scientist in the country, which he himslef called it a pity because subject matter experts can not only write authentically with their first hand experience but also can have solutions to the teething problems !

Nowadays how many of our kids are passionate about trekking, mountaineering, swimming in the open, gardening, animal breeding or observing ? whose fault is it ? parents ? teachers ? society ? or nature ! We nowadays talk of saving nature , i don't understand what does that mean, we must instead be talking about saving ourselves because we are dependent on nature not otherwise !

We talk at length about innovation ecosystem, business ecosystem, political ecosystem etc. but never think of NATURAL ECOSYSTEM ! Development for us means widening of roads, building skyscrappers no matter the what happens to the sewage water disposal, we somehow think somebody else will do it for us and ironically so !

Centuries back forest's as Poornachandra Tejaswi puts it were a great mystery for the man kind, during the last century they were explored and exploited, now we have come to a stage where we have to allocate money in our budgets to save nature and forests !  

The only welcoming thing for us is that in the last few years India is seeing a slight increase in the forest belt when the rest of the world is having a decreasing trend, but still China has 5 times more trees per person than India , US has 30 times more and cannada 250 times more ( Note : all these countries have 3 times more land area compared to India) ! we have a long way to go before catching up ! 

But its never too late as the poet puts it bluntly " Poems are written by fools like me, but only a wise man can plant a tree !" . It applies to me, this article and all of us !

So let's plant a tree and be wise so that the disappeared sparrows, mynas, humming birds and parrots will come back home, so that we can get up everyday listening to the chirping birds, so that we really become an active and contributing part of the nature !