Musings
on the Rooftops
How empty and lifeless
are the rooftops of these high-rises! The huge water tanks and dish T.V.
antennas are their only adornments. Children do not go there to play, neither
does a young lady dry her long tresses sitting there in the warmth of the
winter Sun, making some young boy smitten on some neighboring rooftop. Winters,
on them, do not resonate with the laughter of ladies sitting together, creating
designs on the wool with their knitting-needles while keeping a watch on the
kids playing nearby. The young, from these rooftops, do not render the sky a
riot of colours with their kites in that short spring season before the Sun
turns fierce. Summer evenings do not see the drenching of the rooftop floor
before the cots are laid down for the night’s sleep. And, no longer do children
or lasses dance on the rooftops welcoming the splatter of the first showers as
it soaks the world around with petrichor.
It was so different when the towns hadn’t
turned into megalopolises and, the houses did not resemble cells of a
honeycomb. The roofs of the houses were as lively, open and, welcoming as the
then life. The sound of chirping crickets, the waft of an old film song on
radio from some distant roof and, the soft voices of a conversing couple or
someone narrating stories to kids slowly faded away, as the gentle summer
breeze, with a whiff of the sweet mild smell of a mango tree in bloom, lulled
all to sleep. The warmth of the afternoon Sun in the winters brought all and
sundry to their rooftops and it became a stage for varied activities- sun bath
for the oil glistening torsos before the water- bath, indoor games or outdoor
games with improvisations according to the size of the rooftops and, a snooze
for the elderly.
Life,
however, in these giant residential complexes in our asphalt jungles, is a bit
different. Closeted with the four walls all the day long, it is amidst the
monotonous whirr of the air-conditioners and intimacy with the communication
gadgets that one goes to sleep. Isn’t the word ‘complex’ denoting these giant
residential buildings so apt? This word– both as a noun and, as an adjective-
signifies all the characteristics of these buildings aspiring to touch the
clouds. In thinking thus, I am reminded of two great thinkers- Ruskin and
Tagore. While Ruskin believed that our architecture is an expression of our
life and character, Tagore wrote- ‘…walls leave their mark deep in the minds of
men. They set up a principle of ‘divide and rule’ in our mental outlook, which
begets in us a habit of securing all our conquests by fortifying them and
separating them from one another…. It breeds in us a strong suspicion of
whatever is beyond the barriers we have built, and everything has to fight hard
for its entrance into our recognition’.
The openness, sharing in the griefs and happiness of others and, genuine
joie de vivre in our lives, a few
decades back, seems to have been replaced by canned emotions and their digital
expressions. Has our world view been limited by the size of our open terraces and
the time we get to spend on it? I wonder.
(published in HT Lko - 15/12/2015 Link- http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/iphone/homepage.aspx#_article33a44347-42e3-4f2d-8a82-2b77e82f27af/waarticle33a44347-42e3-4f2d-8a82-2b77e82f27af/33a44347-42e3-4f2d-8a82-2b77e82f27af/true
