This was one post that I wanted to write for a long time but had kept as a draft for a while now. I have lived in BTM, Bangalore for almost 3 years now till until a month back when I moved to Fraser town, Bangalore. One of the prominent activities that perpetually goes on in BTM is building construction, apartments mostly. Construction in Bangalore is not just powered by cement and steel but also by families of migrant workers from neighbouring states of TamilNadu and Andhra and as well as from states as far away as Bihar. To me when I first saw families constructing buildings in BTM, it was a queer sight because I've never witnessed it before. I've witnessed building construction as a 8 to 6 activity in which the building is left in peace at night to rest and to grow the next day.
This is how it works in Bangalore. A family or a couple of families come stay at the site of the building and start constructing the building from scratch. The worker's families construct small shelters out of mud and hollow blocks to live adjacent to the building when it starts to grow from pits and concrete basements. The men from who work at the site are skilled while women mostly cook and take care of the unskilled part of the construction like gathering sand and stones. I've seen the children play around unmindful of the construction with other children and dogs that feed and grow along with them. The children grow up amusingly among steel and cement and sand around the building and as they grow big so does the building.
Women at the site cook using earthen stoves, usually rice and vegetable bought from the neighbouring shops, new found neighbours, neighbours introduced to them by the building they've come to construct. I've seen men bathe at the bore well pumps drilled for the building's use. They bathe on the road adjacent to the building unmindful of passers by or the traffic, they bathe as though they want to show off their hardened biceps and abs to passing by software engineers who go to high tech gyms and pay a bounty to try and reduce their excess fat.
There is always a pack of dogs around the building site and the working families. Dogs that spring up as puppies from nowhere when the construction starts and grow with the children and the building. The house warming of the building happens on the night when the building gets a roof over it. Its the time that the working families move from the shelter along the roadside into the house amongst stacked up floor tiles and timber. They live as the first occupants of the building in unfinished rooms with no walls and doors.
Its the time of the year that the construction families find a new home again. The building they set out to build is completed and its time for them to move on. They've raised the building as they'd raised their children and the dogs that grew with their children. They had built it with their sweat and labour and the building had been grateful to them as well. It gave them a livelihood and a home, but alas, its time to move on and they part ways. The men, women and children move along with the real estate market of the town and the building stays back with the dogs that grew with it, awaiting its new occupants. The construction families with their tents and dogs are nomads in this concrete jungle and they are the first family of this real estate market.
This is how it works in Bangalore. A family or a couple of families come stay at the site of the building and start constructing the building from scratch. The worker's families construct small shelters out of mud and hollow blocks to live adjacent to the building when it starts to grow from pits and concrete basements. The men from who work at the site are skilled while women mostly cook and take care of the unskilled part of the construction like gathering sand and stones. I've seen the children play around unmindful of the construction with other children and dogs that feed and grow along with them. The children grow up amusingly among steel and cement and sand around the building and as they grow big so does the building.
Women at the site cook using earthen stoves, usually rice and vegetable bought from the neighbouring shops, new found neighbours, neighbours introduced to them by the building they've come to construct. I've seen men bathe at the bore well pumps drilled for the building's use. They bathe on the road adjacent to the building unmindful of passers by or the traffic, they bathe as though they want to show off their hardened biceps and abs to passing by software engineers who go to high tech gyms and pay a bounty to try and reduce their excess fat.
There is always a pack of dogs around the building site and the working families. Dogs that spring up as puppies from nowhere when the construction starts and grow with the children and the building. The house warming of the building happens on the night when the building gets a roof over it. Its the time that the working families move from the shelter along the roadside into the house amongst stacked up floor tiles and timber. They live as the first occupants of the building in unfinished rooms with no walls and doors.
Its the time of the year that the construction families find a new home again. The building they set out to build is completed and its time for them to move on. They've raised the building as they'd raised their children and the dogs that grew with their children. They had built it with their sweat and labour and the building had been grateful to them as well. It gave them a livelihood and a home, but alas, its time to move on and they part ways. The men, women and children move along with the real estate market of the town and the building stays back with the dogs that grew with it, awaiting its new occupants. The construction families with their tents and dogs are nomads in this concrete jungle and they are the first family of this real estate market.
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