Khirkee Voice (Issue 4) English by Khoj International Artists' Association

KHIRKEE VOICE

FALL EDITION

ISSUE #4

German Economist impressed with local economy

SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER 2017

DELHI, INDIA

SPECIAL ISSUE ON LOCAL ECONOMIES

The Soul of the Smart City

S E A S O N A L REPORT

12 PAGES

A new way of learning with Aagaaz

“ONE NATION, ONE TAX”

WARM & HUMID, COOLER BY THE END OF NOVEMBER

DEMERARA, GUYANA

WARM, MOSTLY SUNNY, WITH OCCASSIONAL LIGHT SHOWERS

HEIDELBERG, GERMANY

PARTIAL SUNSHINE, OVERCAST, COLD AND RAINY BY NOVEMBER

Workers from one of Khirkee’s many recycling shops make light of their difficult financial state

Mahavir Singh Bisht

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

O LAGOS, NIGERIA

WARM, PARTIALLY SUNNY, OCCASSIONAL SHOWERS

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA

WARM, PARTIALLY SUNNY, OCCASSIONAL SHOWERS

illustrations: anarya

PATNA, INDIA

LIGHT RAINS, SUNNY, GRADUAL DECREASE IN TEMPERATURE

Gagan Singh’s intuitive drawing process

LOCAL BUSINESSES GRAPPLE WITH

photograph: mahavir singh bisht

MOSTLY SUNNY AND WARM, COOLS DOWN IN NOVEMBER

Supported by

ne often hears people refer to Narendra Modi as an inimitable leader who works tirelessly to achieve what he sets his mind to. Under his leadership, the central government recently introduced the GST bill, with the slogan ‘one nation, one tax’. While many have called this a ‘revolutionary bill’, there are others who are trying to figure what this bizarre tax is? The government claims that this will improve ease of doing business. We spoke to a few people from the community who run small and medium-sized enterprises in Khirkee to try and understand how the bill has impacted them. Khirkee is an urban village with a proliferation of small businesses like general stores, chemists, electrical, clothing and convenience shops. Majority of these shops are part of the informal sector. One of the objectives of the GST has been the mainstreaming of this sector. But while it is one thing to pass the bill, implementation poses many challenges. In a country as complex as India, it is problematic to impose a single bill that views everyone from a single perspective. There are many contradictions in the GST. First, before the tax was

implemented, it was thought that all goods and services would be taxed at the same rate in order to make it easier to understand and implement. However there are four slabs5%, 12%, 18% and 28% respectively. It was thought that 28% tax would only apply to luxury goods but it is in fact being imposed on basic necessities. It is also difficult to determine which slab certain items fall under. We spoke to SK Verma of Verma Medicos at J Block in Khirkee. He says the arrival of the GST in the aftermath of demonetization has proved to be a double whammy. “We’ve barely recovered after demonetization and now we have to struggle to understand this new tax.” He says that imposing a tax without adequate preparation/notice reduces the supply from dealers. “We sell

essential items like medicines but if we don’t get our supply of items then what are we to sell to the customers? People are having to go back empty- handed.” The rise in prices of second-class medicines has also meant a shortage in the supply of branded drugs. When we told him that its widely believed that this tax has many benefits, he immediately responded that it is hard to gauge them at the moment. It has been stated that this tax will benefit the poor. If everyday necessities like oil, soap etc. has a tax of 18% to 28% and items like cashews, pistachios and almonds have 5% tax, it is difficult to speculate how this is to benefit the poor. It will take time for those running small and medium sized enterprises to understand the nuances of the tax and it will also rob them of their marginal profits. This will also impact lower and middle class customers. Tanvir Ahmad who runs an electrical shop at Hauz Rani speaks of how he has been affected “There is a 28% tax on all electrical items. If purchasing is going to be so expensive then what are we supposed to sell? How will we earn? With the sudden arrival of this tax, getting rid of the old stock is a headache. Also, there will now be an added expense for maintaining accounts. I’ll have to hire at least one person to operate

As profit margins shrink across the neighborhood, humor and cameraderie alleviate some of the daily struggles and confusion of coming to grips with the recently implemented GST bill. a computer for that. The rise in operating costs will directly slash our profits.” He also insists that this tax will leave the big businessman completely unaffected. This leaves us with the question if this tax is only for the big businessmen? What kind of planning is this where the smallest businessman and the poorest customers are the only losers? We then met Ashwini Ji who runs a jewelry shop in the lane beside Hauz Rani. He said that the government should focus on increasing business as opposed to increasing taxes. “If taxes are lowered, the smaller informal businesses will automatically comply with the law.” It seems like the middle class businessmen of our country are perhaps a bit wiser than our policy makers. Instead of making the new tax simpler, the government has only presented the old tax in a new guise. CA Gulshan Sharma agrees that the most affected will be small-scale businesses, trying to understand and comply with the GST. “There will be a fall in their sales and there will be additional expenditure on bookkeeping.” it offers no assurance or guarantees for the small businessmen. It will be a while before they can understand the inconveniences and benefits that result from it.

KHIRKEE VOICE • Fall Edition 2017

e are excited to bring you this fourth edition of Khirkee Voice, the puddles of the monsoon have nearly dried up, and the whole country is trying to make sense of a brand new system of taxation. In this larger context of

THE ECONOMIC RESILIENCE OF KHIRKEE 2

massive economic changes, the fall edition of Khirkee Voice examines our tiny corner of the world as a Micro-Economy- a tiny system of monetary exchanges between a tiny ecosystem of inter-connected livelihoods. Khirkee is a microcosm of the immensely complex and diverse economic realities of our country- its extreme inequalities, the many varying scales and a vast informal sector, and its fast pace of change. Existing as it does on the lower end of the economic spectrum, Khirkee is a dense conglomeration of informal businesses that provide goods and services that range from the daily and mundane to the highly skilled and exclusive. Here we examine a small selection of these businesses, while also looking at how this system of interconnected livelihoods keeps the neighborhood economically resilient and sustainable. The scale and reach of India’s informal economy has been widely reported to have saved the country from the worst effects of the global economic meltdown of

2008, dependant as it is on small scale lending, manufacturing and distribution. A visiting social economist from Germany writes about this autonomy and resilience, and how he wishes that his own town in Germany had a similar system of small-scale businesses run by and for its own needs. Khirkee Voice spoke with a number of small businesses for this issue, and found that the dramatic changes in our economy over the past year have hit the informal sector the hardest. Far from simplifying the process of setting up and running small businesses, most people are worried about the added expenses of digitizing their businesses and filing more complex returns multiple times a year. Even the smallest disruption in the supply-demand chain has an adverse effect on the profit margins of small enterprises. In these circumstances, most agree that a single, reasonable tax bracket and norms to protect small businesses would have been much more effective in increasing the governments

tax intakes. Instead, policies born out of an inherent suspicion towards the general public have resulted in grave losses to both the government and the most vulnerable economic classes. While businesses that earn less than 20 lakhs a year are ostensibly outside the purview of GST, the stark reality on the ground makes this exception even more burdensome for the small business, as they still have to trade goods with manufacturers, suppliers and transporters who have to pay the tax and then pass on the added costs to the small businesses, eating further into their meagre profit margins. Through all the uncertainty, Khirkee’s engines keep rolling. The close-knit shops, street vendors and passersby take time from their laments to make jokes and commiserate with each other. It makes the harsh realities of life a little easier- knowing that others are in the same boat, struggling against the same currents, all striving for a semblance of normalcy.

Fall Edition, 2017 • KHIRKEE VOICE

What my German town can learn from Khirkee’s Local Economy Sven-David Pfau

t is 7PM, as I walk down the crowded Khirkee main road. I see many people on the streets, busy making their “khariddaaris” of the day, chatting with each other or having a snack at a momo stall. As I step away from the crowds into a stationery shop, the shopkeeper, Saina ji, after a customary namaste, asks with some irritation, “Why are you here? What makes Khirkee so special that you foreigners hang out in these streets?”. This gets me thinking, what makes Khirkee so special to me, an economics student from Germany who was only recently introduced to the neighborhood through a local friend. “Your country is well developed, organized and clean” Saina-Ji continues, “why do you enjoy being here?” I come from a country that is often regarded as “Developed”, with a successful, rich and global economy. But this is definitely not a complete picture. Countries like Germany might be “rich” but their economy needs a lot of resources because of their expensive lifestyle and infrastructure (like big houses, roads and many cars) and their dependence on the export and import of goods over long distances. This is starting to become a big problem for western countries because resources like fuels, metals and many more are depleting very quickly, and most of our jobs, the products we produce and consume and the income we earn are dependent on the availability of these resources. This model we follow in Germany will not work

anymore in the future. That’s why many citizens, politicians and economists are looking for new solutions in a “local economy” where most people’s needs are met by locally produced goods, people work and live at the same place and the overall economy works with fewer resources. Local economies bring lots of benefits to its people: They are cheaper and more sustainable as they use fewer natural resources, besides being more economically stable as people control their businesses themselves. I live in a small German city called Heidelberg, a place with roughly the same population as Khirkee, but ours is not a very local economy. Many shops there are not local businesses but belong to big chains, most consumer goods are produced outside and there are few social connections or interactions between shopkeepers and their customers, unlike here. In this regard Khirkee is more “developed” than many places in Germany and also within Delhi! That is what fascinates me about Khirkee: Here I can learn about some things that are missing in my own city’s economy. One of the first things I noticed while walking around was the sheer diversity of its residents, coming from various parts of the world as well as within India. It seems everybody benefits from the variety of services and goods produced and offered within the neighborhood, like the food ranging from Afghani to Bihari and Keralite, and tailors that cater to Indian, western and even African tastes! This local variety can only exist because of

Casual conversations on Khirkee Streets

READING A DRAWING Gagan Singh

he Drawings are ways of thinking, imagining characters, objects enacting an act, in which I cannot distinguish between the text and the image. Both form a relationship in themselves. The Text reinforces a certain meaning to the drawn lines on the paper. These Drawings were also not entirely done through memory

the diversity of people with all sorts of backgrounds and skills. Most necessities are reachable within a walking distance with the network of sabzi wallas, kirana shops and other daily conveniences that spread into most lanes. While not everything sold in Khirkee is produced locally, a lot of things like the variety of craftworks, carpentry, tailoring and small industries among others, are local generators of jobs, and these local jobs in turn create a safe income within the neighborhood. Khirkee also seems to have a good recycling network and plenty of repair shops, which ensure that products can be used and reused for a long time, again saving money and being ultimately sustainable. When I ask tailor Gautam about his relationship with his customers he immediately responds “sabko jante hain” (I know everybody). In Khirkee, shops become public meeting points and the neighborhood remains lively. In contrast, if there is no such local economy, the streets might be rather empty and boring and people need to buy expensive café to have access to social meeting points. Khirkee’s unique combination of diversity, local production/ businesses and public life has created a sustainable and inclusive neighborhood that my German town stands to learn a lot frommaybe if German cities allowed some level of the flexibility and diversity that makes Khirkee such a vibrant economy, they could become more sustainable economically and environmentally. Quieter walks on Heidelberg Streets

but maybe an intuitive response to the experience of being at Khirkee village on that particular day. This means, another day, time would create a new experience. The set of sketches presented are in response to a focus on a particular conversation, which sifted out other sensorial experiences from the walk that day. Bheem Singh, an electrician based in Khirkee village narrated a story about his relationship of walking in the lanes and the adjustments one has to make in living a peaceful day to day life in the village. This generated an imagined mental space where forms collided in a certain way. The word, or the

action, or my interpretation of the word “to bounce” came up along with other such words and images. For me, the interest usually lies in how we live out our life, how we behave, how a society functions and how can I sometimes alter this way of functioning.

illustration: ita mehrotra

WOMAN CHEF SMASHES

STEREOTYPES Devika Menon

orking in Khirkee has been challenging for me. Previously I was working for a cafe in the neighborhood and did not have so many responsibilities. Some months ago I switched jobs and am now managing a small canteen in the same space by myself. The management of the studio where the canteen is located wanted to hire a female chef for the job, despite my apprehensions about the same- I felt that a woman might not be able to manage the rigors of the job. Long hours of standing, impatient customers and a large volume of orders at a time were only some of the reasons I felt that a woman might not be able to manage. This was highly hypocritical of me, coming from a background of working with a women’s rights NGO. I had been working at this NGO for around 3 years of my life, and I felt that by now ideas of feminism should have been engraved in my mind, but clearly that was not the case. It was infact in my mind from a very young age that women cant be chefs, and can only cook at home. Chef jobs were a very masculine domain, not a space where women are seen often. Despite this quandary, I spoke to a local NGO that works with women and girls, and asked them if they could help me find a suitable candidate. Within a couple of weeks, they found me a woman who had previously worked at a school canteen. She came to the office for a trial, and made the most delicious chicken curry anyone of us had tasted in a long time. I was sold, and with some discussion and another interview with the management, we decided to hire her. Still, I was apprehensive about this decision. Suman Devi (name changed) joined the canteen in June, and it has been two months since then. She has surprisingly proven all my preconceived notions wrong, and has been managing beautifully.

Initially, we did not have a helper, so she even washed dishes and did tasks that were outside her job description. When I asked her about how she found out about the job in Khirkee, she said that her friend Meena (name changed) who works at the NGO is a good friend of hers and lives in her neighborhood. Meena, who has been working at the NGO for approximately a year, encouraged her to apply. Before working at the canteen, Suman ran her own wholesale shop with her husband. Due to various reasons, including caring for her ailing father-in-law, they were not able to handle the expenses of the shop, and were forced to shut it down. Post the shop, she along with her husband worked in a school canteen near their house. Despite being a person who could only sign her name, she was responsible even for managing expenses at the canteen. She was then forced to leave that job as the contractor’s tender ended. For many women in India, family pressures force you to quit working, especially if you have a child and live in a joint family. Suman was not going to be deterred by this, she said that she comes from a family which supports her endeavors. However, her extended family has no idea that she goes to work everyday, and she said that if they find out she would not be permitted to work anymore, and therefore feels the need to remain anonymous here. On a typical day, Suman wakes up at 5 am and does all the housework. She then spends 2 hours commuting to Khirkee, changing three buses or taking the metro. Meena showed her the way the first few days, but she has been making the commute on her own since then. Suman stays in a joint family, and she tells me that her mother in law sometimes complains about her travelling so far for work. Her response to that is that she is not neglecting her family responsibilities in the least, and hence has no reason to quit. One day, I 9

KHIRKEE VOICE • Fall Edition 2017

EXCLUSIVE SERIES

FORCED INTO THE OCEAN 4th installment of an Artist’s rendition of his great grandmothers forced migration.

Deeper Into the Demerara TEXT + ARTWORK ANDREW ANANDA VOOGEL

e left our last chapter with Polo, the crane operator from the local sugar cane plantation taking a risk by abandoning his daily shift at the plantation and finding a boatman to take him down the winding Essequibo River. Weeks earlier, on an evening when even the walls on all of the plantation homes were sweating, Polo found himself at the local Fish & Rum shop after his night shift. The place was empty, with the exception of a loudly snoring man who had clearly had too much rum, and not enough fish. Polo ordered a rum from the barkeep and proceeded to listen to the loud orchestral arrangement being performed by the thousands of insects singing, buzzing, chirping and clicking just outside the shop. He took in the various melodies for a moment, as he began to notice his fellow bar patron come to from his snooze. The man, bleary eyed looked up at Polo and muttered something under his breath, then gradually, lifting himself up, he stumbled out from the shop and

into the night. Polo’s eyes followed him as he disappeared into the symphonic darkness, eventually resting on where the man had been sitting. He noticed a piece of crumpled parchment paper in place where the man had sat. Polo reached over and picked up the paper, flattening it out on the table. He squinted his eyes to sharpen past the dull glow of the tungsten light. They focused in on what appeared to be a map. He saw a scrawling irregular line that passed in and out of the paper. At the top, written out in giant text was ESIQUIBO RIVER. There was an arrow pointing in at a bend in the river. The arrow pointed to an intricately drawn figure. Polo peered closer at the form and like some strange hieroglyphic, he recognized it for what it wasan Amazonian spirit of some sort. Most likely an ancestor or tribal king from one of the local communities. Polo wasn’t sure who the identity of the chap on the map was, but he did know one thing for certain-maps with tribal symbols on them in the Demerara

usually meant one thing: gold! Polo looked around the rum shop, the barkeep was softly snoring behind the bar, and aside from the geckos, the place was empty. He gently folded the map into his pocket and departed into the clicks and chirps of the late evening. A few weeks later, heavy rains from the monsoon season began to pour down in his village. He waited till the third day of rains, when the water began to thin, so he could bunk off his plantation shift. Early one morning, he packed a fifth of rum, a machete and some daal and roti and departed. As he walked past his sleeping children, he heard his wife call “Mala, it’s time! Get your things and go on to school.” His youngest daughter, Mala must have been out in the jungle early that morning. He caught her two weeks earlier with a small bag of stolen coffee beans, she had picked from their neighbor Krishna’s coffee farm. He thought to himself, she must be up to her usual antics! Polo, hoping his early departure would go unnoticed by his wife, stealthily crept out of the

back window of their stilted home. The early morning dew glistened amongst the plantation homes as he trod toward one of the local canals where the boatmen stayed, waiting to collect passengers and river crossing fares. Polo brought with him an extra bottle of rum and some government issued food rations. He hoped this would convince one of the waiting boatmen to take him toward the destination detailed in the map. Polo arrived at the small rickety pier that hosted the ragtag collection of brightly colored riverboats. The boats, on first glance are less boats and more like canoes with outboard motors, not the most confidence inspiring sea-faring vessels. Polo happened upon Ram, who sat reading the morning paper in his shabbily painted turquoise boat. “How you deh Ram,” Polo called. “Me deh good,” Ram responded. Ram looked at Polo, noting the machete in his hand, and the small bag he had around his shoulder and knew Polo had something up his sleeve. “Me waan go for walk,” Polo called

again to Ram. “Yah, an where ya waaaan go walk Mr. Polo,” Ram retorted. “Me waaaan go pon Baacktraaack,” Polo called back. “Oh jeeeezusssss Mr. Polo, too early to walk pon Baaacktraack!” Polo knowing it would be a hard sell, slowly revealed the bottle of El Dorado Rum he had brought as a bargaining chip. “Ohhhhh, me undastan,” Ram resounded pleasantly. Polo approached Ram’s boat, quickly opening up the bottle and presenting two plastic cups. “C’mon let’s take a finey.” Polo poured an oversized shot of rum into Ram’s cup, and one into his own. Both men gulped down the rum, as Polo poured one more for the both of them. The quietly bubbling Cola-Creek, whose cola color watered came from the Amazon gushed passed with the morning tidal shift as the two men began to put a dent in the bottle. “Okay, den where we a go Mr. Polo,” Ram said with a smirk on his face. “De rum a deep in me heart Ram, an dis jungle here got something for us pon dis day,” Polo slurred. “All right den, le we go,” and with

Fall Edition, 2017 • KHIRKEE VOICE

that Ram started the outboard and began chugging his ill equipped river canoe down Cola Creek and toward the Essequibo River. Cola Creek, the little sister of the Essequibo and Amazon, meanders gently from the interior to the coast, with villages and mandirs scantily adorned along her banks until she joins the Essequibo. Once you reach the Essequibo, the trees begin to shoot toward the sky and you can feel the curious gaze of creatures from the interior watching you silently from the banks. There are no more villages, sparing the few outposts to get petrol and rum before heading deeper into the interior. The lush green jungle hangs over you thick like the dense humid air that fills your nostrils as you breathe in the many strange scents of the jungle. The Essequibo lyrically bends and wraps through the jungle at times as wide as a lake, and at others as thin as twine, sometimes still and sometimes rushing, she pulls all who wander atop her waters deeper into the interior. Polo and Ram reach that strange bend in the river where the arrow on the map points inward, and Polo points towards a quiet bank to dock Ram’s boat. Ram looks around cautiously. He’s heard the many stories of

be difficult to convince anyone to come into the jungle with him, especially with how deep they were. Polo handed the remaining rum to Ram and said “Wait for me here, me come back in a few hours.” Polo took his machete and leapt off the boat, disappearing quickly into the jungle. He moved at a fast pace through the interior, quietly dancing past the ferns and vines, attempting to go unnoticed by the creatures on the ground and up in the trees. After about an hour of cutting and weaving through the greenery, he began to hear the gentle falling of water, as he moved closer and closer to the sound, he saw a clearing. He headed toward the clearing and the gentle sound of water began to turn into a roar. He looked down and saw a violently crashing waterfall collapsing from the jungle’s edge a mile down into a deep ravine. The sky was open and the brightest of blues. Polo smacked a mosquito as it landed on his arm, and looked down at the gurgling brown water below. Polo must’ve been two hours from Ram and the Essequibo at this point. He pulled out the map that had put him on this strange early morning journey and unfolded it. He gazed at the curious chap that had been so delicately drawn. His eyes moved

Facing page, Left: The Boatman, Silver Gelatin Print; 2007 Facing page, Right: Omeros, Silver Gelatin Print; 2017 Below: The Spirit of Naylamp; 2017

headhunters and black magic that haunt these jungles. As he gently brings his boat onto the riverbank, he motions toward a red piece of knotted cloth at the jungle’s edge. That signaled to both men that there was voodoo past the tree line. Someone had left that as a warning to anyone that intended to move deeper past the river and onto the land. “Me won’t follow in der,” Ram told Polo. Polo knew that it would

past the surface of the paper and out onto the ominous waterfall. Polo catches view of what appears to be a narrowly carved path on the opposing Cliffside. He thinks back to his mischievous daughter Mala and her early morning conquests on their neighbor’s coffee farm. He smiles, and heads toward the mouth of the waterfall, and the path down the Cliffside.

i n t e rv i e w

POOJA SOOD by

Malini Kochupillai suresh pandey

“We are here primarily for artists, and anyone from the community with an interest and curiosity in the arts is welcome to come and engage, and build a relationship of mutual respect” KHOJ has been situated in Khirkee for 15 years and has seen the neighborhood and its own presence in it change in many ways. We sat down with Pooja Sood, the director, for a candid conversation about how Khoj’s engagement with the community has changed over the years, and what lies in store for the future.

MK: Khoj first moved into Khirkee in 2002, can you tell us a little about how the neighborhood was back then? Were there any surprises when you initially moved here? Has a lot changed since? PS: I first came to Khirkee in 2001 for a residency, a year before we moved here. It was much more a village then, before the mall came. What was surprising was the complete male dominance, there used to be no women on the streets. In the evenings, crowds of karigars from the basement workshops, hidden at work during the day, would gather around in their addas at chaiwalas and kirana shops on the street. One heard of brawls every now and then, but felt quite safe as there were always people around. The neighborhood started changing quite rapidly after the malls and hospitals came up in 2005-06, the most distressing was that it immediately dried up all our ground water! But besides that, there was a noticeable shift in the demographics of the neighborhood, one started to see more cultural diversity, stylishly dressed students and young professionals, including a lot more women. MK: How has Khoj the institution evolved over this time? What has been your motivation to engage with the community? PS: When we moved here, our first motivation was to feel comfortable, and we really wanted to build trust. Pradeep Sachdeva before us had a great relationship with the people here, and we wanted to continue in that spirit. From the beginning we were fuelled by an interest in seeing how the arts can make a difference within the community.

We started with painting murals on the street, shop makeovers, working with the temple, as a way of getting to know the panditji and other key stake holders within the community, and to also introduce ourselves to the neighborhood as creative practitioners. In addition, with every residency, some artists would invariably be awed by the neighborhood and chose to engage with it. I remember an Indonesian artist decided to paint the tempo of a commercial driver as his project. He would sleep all day and paint the tempo at night. On the open day, it was more important for him to go and have dinner with his new tempo-driver friend than attend the opening! We have had many performers as well who would go in the streets painting themselves. I think people here see us as slightly crazy artists who are always upto something strange, but also that we were harmless and non-interfering. We have always wanted to maintain a peaceful co-existence with the community, and we want to keep things professional and make sure people respect our space. We are here primarily for artists, and anyone from the community with an interest and curiosity in the arts is welcome to come and engage, and build a relationship of mutual respect. MK: How has this engagement with the community evolved over time, can you tell us a little about some of the new community based projects and what drives them? PS: Earlier our engagement was sporadic, depending on specific residencies, artists or projects. I was dissatisfied with the lack of continuity, and also felt like it was not an even transaction- the artists would invariably stand to gain

more than community members. Over time we have started to support projects that are of equal interest to the community. That’s why we are excited to support this newspaper, which is primarily about the neighborhood and its diverse people and is as valuable to them as it is to the artists, who are playing out their own intellectual interests. And it works for Khoj because we are all about supporting artists and their mad ideas, and engaging positively with the community. Swati Janu’s Phone Recharge shop, which has now evolved into a local recording studio, is, at its kernel, seeking to broker respect for difference, by sharing music, videos, telling stories in a very casual way, where members of the community chose to engage with the space at their leisure. It is a much more organic process. I want to change the rhythm of interaction to one that is slower, more deliberate. What was nice about that we did before was that we tried so many strategies and learnt so much about the community; it helped us tweak our methodology to now be able to execute projects that are exciting for everyone. MK: What are some of the things that you would like to see come out of it? PS: My inspiration is ‘Superman of Malegaon’, a documentary about the passion that the people of Malegaon, a town in Maharashtra, have for filmmaking; we screened it recently in Jamun Park to a huge crowd from the neighborhood. If, through our programs, we are able to train kids to, say, make a little film, but from an artistic sensibility. Sanyukta from Aagaaz is working with kids from the 9

KHIRKEE VOICE • Fall Edition 2017

Usha. Tailor

Manohar Gupta. Scrap business

Amit Kumar. Photography Studio

Murad Ali. Artist and teacher

Salman. Meat shop and Restaurant

Marris. Hairstylist

Rajesh Kazi. Watchman

Yasmin Khan. Tailor

M D Mukatsar. Contractor

Fall Edition, 2017 • KHIRKEE VOICE

Abdul Rahim. Afghani ice-cream parlour

Anita. Chef

Prakash. Kachori vendor

Asha Parmar. Tailoring material supplier

Khuda Det. Cobbler

Shikh Rajaq. Daily Labourer

M D Rahil. Daily labourer

LIVES AND LIVELIHOODS OF AN URBAN VILLAGE Photographs: Vinit Gupta

e present a first glimpse into an ongoing visual exploration of the many different types of professionals, goods, services and amenities that thrive in the tight knit lanes of Khirkee Extension. Migrants and immigrants of all hue and nationality go about their busy lives, trying to make ends meet as the world around them changes rapidly. Documentary photographer Vinit Gupta has been a regular visitor to the neighborhood, and made these portraits as an introduction to the discussion and stories that will follow in coming editions of Khirkee Voice. The most striking aspect of the streets in Khirkee is the diversity of cultures, social classes and ethnicities that co-exist in such a tiny space. Everyone finds a little corner for themselves and settles down in to the business of living life. Days are spent taking care of the demands of business, while simultaneously negotiating differences, helping neighbors in need, collecting debts, the occasional brawl and then making jokes over cups of chai. Teeming with life, Khirkee is a treasure trove of rich histories and stories that are waiting to be revealed. Lets start here with just an introduction to some of these lives.

Gulam Ali Aayam. Afghani bread baker

KHIRKEE VOICE • Fall Edition 2017 malini kochupillai

Busy Underground

THE PULSE OF KHIRKEE’S REALESTATE MARKET Aditya Kaushik at his office in Khirkee

Mahavir Singh Bisht

vanessa lovell

Hand block-printing at Ethnic Looks

Vanessa Lovell

eer into the cracks of the basement fan vents in the ramshackle buildings that make Khirkee, and you may see nimble fingers crafting away at needlework, or perhaps deftly working their way across swathes of fabric, block printing patterns carved not by machine, but by a skilled craftsman. If there is one place where one can see the true potential of human craft over machines in modern production, it is Khirkee Extension. One such place is Ethnic Looks, a textile production company specialising in ladies kurtas. Run predominantly from one of the many basement workshops that make up the underground workforce of Khirkee, this relatively humble workplace supplies to the likes of Jabong, Snapdeal and Amazon, to name a few. Occupying a relatively small space, they are able to design, block print, embroider, cut, sew and package all on location. Raised in a family of tailors in Jharkhand, the owner, Mohammed Akhtar, originally took a degree in political sciences, and was the only son to not follow in the family trade. Hoping to find work in the government sector, he moved to Bombay, where he began teaching children to get by. Finding it increasingly difficult to find work, in 1994 he started to sell sewing machines, but unfortunately the business made losses. With increasing pressure from his family, in 1998 he took a pattern-making course and eventually started working in Manesar with a pattern master, where he built up his skills for two years on a Rs. 6,000 salary. Upon seeing an opportunity, he decided to start his own business and took

the plunge by hiring a master block printer, agreeing to share 25% of his profits. After the start of his business he realised that if stitching and production was done in house too he could increase profits, and Ethnic Looks was born. Despite having had no background knowledge of the industry, Mohammed saw potential in the market and built up his know-how over the years. Though sustainable now, Mohammad stresses it has not been smooth. He faced losses in his investments early on, and admits he put his trust in the wrong people at the beginning. But his experiences have lead to some success, even with the debts he still owes. Mohammed’s story is like many who came to the city for a better life. With no jobs in their rural home-towns and a minimum knowledge of the world and global industry, there is no scope for them until they begin life in the city. People from the same regions share this connection and it is perhaps this bond that one sees in the men who block print at Ethnic Looks. They have worked together for 6 years they tell me, and all come from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They are in it together, and I can see this is what makes a tough and laborious job doable. They are just one of the many small communal workforces that graft within Khirkee’s grounds. While the designs at Ethnic Looks may not be high-end artisanal craftsmanship, its not meant to be. But it is providing a level a craft designed to reach a mass market, on an international scale. The companies’ online presence has been going strong for three years now, and by the looks of the workshop, it does not show signs of slowing down.

he property market in Khirkee has seen many ups and downs. After the mall came up in 2005-06, property prices shot up overnight, and rental rates went through the roof. Earlier there were a lot of retired people who would come looking to buy property for themselves here, but now it is mostly investors and builders looking to make a quick profit by renting out their properties- rents have gone up from Rs. 8000-9000, to Rs.2022,000 for a 3 bedroom flat. In the same period, buying rates have more than doubled. Where before it was feasible for a middle class person to buy a home here, the current rates have made that much more difficult.

Despite these fluctuations, what has remained constant through the years is the diversity of people that come to live here. There is a constant ebb and flow of immigrants from different parts of the world, and across India- there were a lot of people from the North East at one point, then there was a proliferation of Africans, now one sees a lot of Afghani and Somali refugees. In comparison to other neighborhoods, the connectivity and relative affordability of Khirkee makes it attractive to many people. We spoke with local businessman, Aditya Kaushik, who used to run a property dealership, about the current state of the market in the neighborhood. He said that the market has cooled down across the city, as in Khirkee. He believes it could take years for the market

to recover, and cited the demonetization drive for the biggest losses. There is a shortage of buyers, and sellers are having to resort to sell at lower than expected rates. In addition to this, the poor quality of the water and sewage infrastructure in the neighborhood is a big problem. Besides that, the congested streets make it impossible for a fire tender to come through incase of fire, raising safety concerns. If some of these problems were resolved, living here would be so much more pleasant. Kaushik plans to eventually sell everything and move to Haryana to open his own Bike Agency, for now, he has started a small restaurant business which keeps him busy through the day, looking after customers, old and new. malini kochupillai

A Taste of Afghanistan Samir Shahzad Amiri

ultan comes from a country where it is not uncommon to be surrounded by persons who kill the innocent. He waited for a while for the situation in his country to improve, hoping that a good leader would come and bring much needed change; but alas that remained a dream and Sultan had to move to India in search of a better life. However, it is hard to survive in a new country without some means to make a living, and Sultan decided to start a restaurant, calling it Bamyan Burger, after the province in Afghanistan where he was born and raised. Keeping in mind the many Afghanis in the neighborhood, Sultan decided to serve different types of Afghan fast food, including Afghan burger, bolani, sambusa, ice cream and a traditional Afghani chicken soup, which is a favorite accompaniment to the burger when the weather is

cooler. Unable to afford to open a restaurant by himself, Sultan decided to look for a business partner, and was lucky enough to find a relative, Habib, who agreed to become a financial partner after being convinced of the potential of the restaurant and Sultan’s plans for it. Now the two of them are running the restaurant together, and are very happy with the progress it has made in such a short time. Habib and Sultan help each other equally in every thing, if one is busy in the cooking, the other looks after the customers. While Afghanis from the neighborhood make up most of his customer base, the restaurant has also started attracting Indians, Africans and Nepali’s who also live around. The afghan burger with chicken soup is a popular combination all across Afghanistan, eaten as a snack at any time of the day- and it seems to have gained a following even

within Khirkee. The burger, distinct from the traditional burger we are used to seeing, is the most sold dish at the restaurant. Made in wrap instead of a bun, the burger comes sprinkled with a special spice that comes from Afghanistan, at a cost of Rs.1000 per kilogram. Sultan says it is this spice that gives it the distinct flavor, making it everyone’s favorite. He plans to serve the traditional chicken soup with the burger as soon as the weather gets cooler. Sultan and Habib are very happy with their business, on the one hand they are able to support themselves financially, and on the other hand, they are representing Afghan culture and food in India to appreciative customers from across the globe! Bamyan Burger has become a local hangout spot for young people in the neighborhood, Sultan plans to keep up the hard work and continue to satisfy the communities’ burger cravings.

Fall Edition, 2017 • KHIRKEE VOICE

POOJA SOOD INTERVIEW /from page 5

The Soul of the Smart City

neighborhood in theater and music and is trying to find local musicians in Khirkee. We would love to have the community sharing Food Events- we had an event on our roof once and I remember having a nice chat with a local lady who said she makes excellent Karela, I asked for her recipe and we started talking. I would like to do more events that start a conversation across social stratas. MK: Are there any specific plans in the future that the community can look forward to? PS: We are currently planning a community festival, in December, as part of our celebration of 20 years of existence, and we feel an imperative to involve the community we have been part of for a majority of that time. The festival will be all about collaborations with local artists and small businesseswe just found out about a small group of Afghan women who have a crochet group, we’ll get them to set up a stall to sell their things. We’re planning a little market on our terrace, and will provide space for locals to set up stalls for crafts, food, and more. And if it’s something that works, it could become an annual event. We are rooted in Khirkee, and I want our engagement with the community to be on-going and organic, working with opportunities that present themselves.

Persis Taraporevala

he Smart Cities Mission is currently India’s largest urban regeneration project. 90 cities have been chosen with a budget of over INR 1900 billion, sourced from both public and private sources of finance. The Mission’s primary aim is to improve existing infrastructure and add some IT components to make cities more efficient and liveable. The focus of the Mission however is purely structural and ignores the fact that quality of life is also dependent on harmony and integration. This article seeks to imagine an alternative form of creating a smart city by learning from Khirkee. The Smart Cities Mission captured the imagination of people across the nation with two powerful weapons – ambition and ambiguity. The Mission’s most definitive statement is “…there is no one way of defining a smart city”, thus providing cities the opportunity to mould a definition that is most place appropriate. Most cities, including Delhi, have underutilised the freedom they were offered and proposed rather predictable forms of urban regeneration. An analysis

of the budgets for the top 90 cities demonstrates that a majority of the funds (over 80 percent) are focused on small areas (roughly 3% of the city area). This means that over INR 1550 billion is being spent on a small area across 90 cities. The areas that have been chosen for this massive funding are also fairly wealthy areas of cities, Delhi for instance has chosen Connaught Place and there is a criticism that the Mission in its current form will only end up improving areas that are already better off and creating more elite areas. The rationale for the focus on small areas in cities is that the Mission is supposed to be a ‘lighthouse’ of development and inspire other cities and other areas to replicate at a later stage. This is where Khirkee comes in; had the Mission focused on more underdeveloped spaces it might have resulted in development that is more equitable and provided a valid example to draw inspiration from. After all, wouldn’t various densely populated areas in Delhi learn much more from regeneration that occurred in Khirkee than they can from Connaught Place? The plan for urban regeneration in Khirkee would have to look at

the advantages and disadvantages of the area. The area is over-crowded, services like drainage, sewerage and sometimes even basic quality of water supply are lacking. The community is deeply diverse. It is perhaps one of the most international spaces in Delhi. The space is also severely divided. There are not enough bridges that connect the various people, and their lives, together in a manner that is meaningful and peaceful. The diversity is not just limited to regional iden-

and bolster trust. Khirkee has several of the characteristics that the Mission seeks to push forward. Livelihoods are often walking distance away or in close proximity to affordable public transport. The Mission is spending money on affordable housing to enhance the inclusiveness of areas, and Khirkee already contains affordable housing for various income levels. Had the Mission tried to improve the existing infrastructure in the areas

“Had the Mission focused on more underdeveloped spaces in the city, it might have resulted in development that is more equitable and provided a valid example to draw inspiration from.” tities, but also in terms of the income levels of the residents. Here, construction workers and middle class families live in close proximity. The area is far more integrated than other parts of the city where colony gates and walls often segregate people. While people do coexist in this area, there is also much anger under the surface because these communities do not trust each other. An alternative form of the Smart Cities Mission, would have been to find a space like Khirkee and improve it structurally and generate spaces to heal its tensions

(proper roads, drainage, sewerage, good quality water supply, redoing electricity wires, enhanced services for schools and skill development) and motivated community leaders to engage with each other and try to mend relationships it might have been able to create change that was much more effective, equitable and replicable for Indian cities. The cities should have recognised a chance to look beyond dry infrastructure improvements to more holistic improvements, to create cities that are truly inclusive and intelligent.

WOMAN CHEF/from page 3 asked her curiously whether it is important for women to work in today’s times. She replied and said, “Ghar pe baith ke kya karenge? Apne aur bache ke kharche dekh sakte hai. Ek salary se kuch nahi hota. Kharcha zyada hai. Main apne bete ke liye mehnat kar rahi hoon, ki voh padh le bas”. (“What will I do sitting at home? By working, I can manage the expenses of myself and my son. Nothing is possible on one salary, expenses are a lot. I am only working for my son, so that he gets a good education”) These words were key to changing my thinking. I felt good inside, and saw how a woman can work hard and support her family. Suman still does observe fasts for her husband, and seems to be totally devoted to her family, but just the fact that she gets out of the house everyday and comes to work is a success in itself.

KHIRKEE VOICE • Fall Edition 2017

Fall Edition, 2017 • KHIRKEE VOICE

A New Way of Learning Sanyukta Saha

alking with a colleague through Khirkee last year, I remember feeling in awe of the diversity that inhabits this small, densely populated neighborhood. The area was literally a ‘window’ into the urbanscape that is contemporary Delhi. The local population seemed as diverse in class, caste, regional and religious identities as the refugees and other outsiders (primarily the artists and NGOwallas). With temples, tiny shops, wall-art, the sudden appearances of small open spaces, and all the narratives about the area in my head, I was wondering how we would even begin imagining developing a community arts project. As expected, it took a while, but today, we are engaging with 25 children between age 4 and 12 from the tongewallah settlements, adolescents who access The Community Library Project, and adults who engage with the public spaces of the neighbourhood through a range of methodologies. Khirkee Dialogues is striving to create a community of diverse, compassionate and curious young people, who engage with themselves and their society critically through arts and alternative ways of learning. Aagaaz’s project for young kids, called Unlearning Uncentered, is bringing art and play based experiences that translate into learning through exploration. The idea is to move away from traditional ways of teaching and learning that often rely entirely on the instructional mode, and try to move to the imaginative and creative mode. We are always at Jamunwala Park on weekends, If you spot a motley bunch of adults, adolescents and children, singing, moving, creating, laughing, that’s us. What we are trying to build is a community of young people who not only learn the the 3 R’s (reading, writing, arithmetic), but also develop a vocabulary of thoughts and ideas to understand and question themselves and the world around them. While the progress has been slow, we are in for the long haul with this group. With a similar vision, we are also working with young people

in Khirkee to create two theatrical productions and one music ensemble. With these young learners, our main focus is to delve deep into ‘process’ while creating aesthetically sound performances. Through theatre and music we explore a language that isn’t just textual and cognitive. The participants will not just be jousting with the whys that surround them, they will also create work that engages their audiences in the same.

Australian Artist, DAVID BRAZIER, returns to the neighborhood with a new project - an arm wresling match with a cash prize and the title of ‘Khirkee’s Strongest Woman’ and ‘Khirkee’s Strongest Man’. Here he tells us more about his practice as an artist working with communities.

suresh pandey

David with Asim, the Winner of the Strongest Man Competition in Khirkee Extension

Aussie Artist Boomerangs Back into the Neighborhood

I Our third project, Kisse Connection, inspired by the Human Library project, is about connecting people through each others’ stories. First developed in Nizammudin Basti, the process involves volunteers who assume the role of books, pick a memory from their lives and live that memory as a story through the duration of the event. Readers ask the ‘book’ questions to get to know the story. The nature of the questions determines the depth of the stories a reader discovers. Through Kisse Connection we are creating a space for dialogue amongst people with different identities to nurture empathy for the Other. Our favourite element of the exercise is the letter box. Readers leave letters for the books they have read. The books receive a sheaf of letters to cherish. We hope that through our collaboration with Khoj, we are able to create a community of young arts practitioners and facilitators, who create agents of change within their local community, just as the members of Aagaaz are in Nizamuddin. Do come and interact with us at one of our regular events at Khoj or at Jamunwala park on the weekends.

‘ts good to be back in Khirkee again, on residency at Khoj. Of all the places I have been on artist residencies, Khirkee remains the most vibrant, complex and stimulating. I was reflecting on what it means to return to a place as a resident artist. The first time I came to Khoj was in 2009. I had never been to India and the movement, energy, cacophony of sounds and smells was unlike anything I had experienced. It shocked my sensibilities to their core and literally changed the way I viewed the world. While my first visit was about exploring this difference, my second has been about looking for the familiar. I had an idea of what to expect. The sensory overload somehow felt like being reacquainted with an old friend and I quickly slipped back into its grooves and rhythms. My practice involves engaging

the public. It’s hard not to make work of a social nature in Khirkee. The community feels so present and the streets so social. In 2009, together with Kelda Free, I organised a cricket match played on Satpula Dam to be professionally commentated. The commentary was broadcast across the dusty pitch as locals gathered to watch the game unfold. Satpula Super Series was taken on by Khoj and later evolved into a soccer series. I was interested in how cricket, once introduced to India in the process of colonialization has been appropriated to such an extent that it is a symbol of decolonisation. The description of the game through the Hindi commentary paid homage to the extent to which this colonial form has now become more Indian than it is English. On this residency, I am working on a number of projects including investigating ‘accent neutralisa-

tion’, a process which aims to create an English accent which is stateless, unhinged from any fixed location. Accent neutralisation is used for integration into a global workforce and follows my current research into the aesthetics and ethics of contemporary labour. I am also continuing an ongoing series of arm wrestling competitions open to the public in different locations around the world. On offer are cash prizes for the winners, both male and female. The events look to tap into local vernacular and explore the social fabric of a given location. They give the community a platform from which a unique sense of ‘place’ can be expressed. I would like to take this chance to say thank you Khoj and Khirkee for having me. Once again it’s been an amazing experience. You are wonderful hosts and I hope to see you again sometime.

Kids at an Unlearning Uncentered Session at Jamunwala Park

KHIRKEE VOICE • Fall Edition 2017

LOCAL FILMMAKER ALL SET FOR SILVER

SCREEN DEBUT

With hard work and perseverance, Nasim Ahmed has made a name for himself in the CD film industry, and he has no plans to slow down! Mahavir Singh Bisht

asim Ahmed, a Khirkee resident for the past 25 years, didn’t grow up wanting to be a filmmaker, but the profession seems to have come calling for him; he has now been making movies for over 17 years. Around the year 2000, just as Bollywood was entering a new age of technology and glamour, small towns in UP and Haryana were seeing a rapidly growing market for Hindi language films released on CD’s. While there has long been a market for Bhojpuri films released on CD’s, these movies, usually in a colloquially spoken version of Hindi, are a relatively new phenomena. Most sought after in villages and small towns, these films often find more appeal here than big Bollywood blockbusters, which people in these communities don’t relate to as much. They enjoy the more down to earth themes and local language of the films made in this genre, popularly known as ‘Mollywood’ productions. Around this same time, Nasim met a friend who was producing a film for CD release, and got involved in the work. He quickly realized that, with hard work and perseverance, there was decent money

to be made in this business. He started working with his friends on various projects and picked up the contacts and skills needed to eventually start his own film making business, starting with music videos, moving on to make small films as his skills and confidence grew. In 2009, the Mollywood film industry almost shut down due to rampant piracy, leaving many filmmakers with losses. However, keeping in mind the popularity of these films, many new investors and producers started to show interest in financially backing the industry. The CD film business has since started to pick up again, with popular names like T-Series getting into the market. Naseem has a production crew of his own between Delhi and Mumbai, and is easily able to recruit actors from a youth theater in Mandi House. New and inexpensive technology has also made it very easy to use special effects and visuals in movies. The films have to go through a process of certification with the censor board- as Nasim’s films are family dramas and usually on socially relevant subjects, he never has a problem in getting certified. These films are distributed for between Rs.25 and Rs.40 in Delhi, NCR and towns in Western U.P.

Above: Nasim Ahmed at the entrance to his studio in Khirkee. Below: A poster celebrating his 17 year journey in the film industry

For publicity, posters are pasted in various places across these cities and towns. The use of the colloquial Hindi of districts across U.P and Haryana for dialogues makes them a crowd favorite across the region. Nasim believes movies to be a mirror to society. If one makes a movie with a positive purpose, it will be well received by the people. He is excited to be releasing his new film, Zakhmi Sikandar, the first to be released on the big screen, which he hopes will bring him a wider audience and more popularity.

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Edited by Malini Kochupillai & Mahavir Singh Bisht [khirkeevoice@gmail.com]

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Supported & Published by KHOJ International Artists Association