Urban Landscape- Dreams in Concrete

Chhota sa ghar hoga baadalon ki chhaon mein,

Aasha ki diwani man mein baansuri bajaaye…

( A small home in the shadow of the clouds- my mind is playing crazy with this dream…)

 Kishore Kumar sings in “Naukri”

...I'd build a big tall house with rooms by the dozen 

 Right in the middle of the town 

 A fine tin roof with real wooden floors below 

 There would be one long staircase just going up And one even longer coming down, 

 And one more leading nowhere, just for show...

Tevye, the milkman, sings “If I were a rich man” in “The Fiddler on the Roof”

It starts with a dream... let yourself go

In spite of the competitive pulls at the wallet, it remains the ultimate in the realization of dreams. Simply put, it is the purchase of your very own home. There is no better way-than  buying  a house- to affirm to yourself and to society at large that you have “settled”. Not having a home to call your own can have an “unsettling” impact on your image.

We  want more.. and more.Nothing is too much or too good for us...

Thanks to rising affluence, Pune has enjoyed an almost uninterrupted property boom for over a decade.  Here is a market in which seller and buyer are more or less evenly matched. No wonder, then, that most of public advertising space in the city and its outskirts are taken up by the builder-oops, sorry, that should be  property developer- fraternity.

70 amenities ... what could they be? Start your count with walls, doors

windows, electricity, running water, swimming pool, garden, clubhouse,

 gym,... continue till they add up to 70..!

It is impossible to ignore the hoardings that promise to fulfill your dream of living in urban utopia. Unlike the modest romanticism  of Kishore Kumar and Tevye, our dreams are more ambitious and unfettered. Nothing is too much or too good for us.

The aggressive creativity that builders apply- and push the envelope- in the use of permissible living space now extends to their marketing methods. It starts with the names given to housing projects.

Gone are the days when our life’s goals are realized in an “Aashiyana”, a “Shanti Kutir”, or a “Sai Dham”. Today we will settle for nothing less than an abode in Whistling Woods (never mind the treeless landscape), a Balmoral (just off a dusty highway) or an Aircastle (on terra firma). The options and promises are virtually unlimited. We are global citizens, we think global and our aspirations are global. Everything about us must have the global look and feel.

The search for the perfect dwelling... your private heaven on this earth... between 9pm and 8am,

The options are unlimited

The promises of a paradise on earth were simply too good to ignore. I started taking these pictures to relieve the tedium of a long   commute. I thought I would be done in a about a week. But more and more hoardings came up and the earlier ones made way for new projects. For about a month, office and home became a second priority. It was fun while it lasted.

Soon, a reality check... money does matter

Sleep on little one while mummy and daddy slog to pay

off the mortgage