Sunday, June 28, 2009

(de)fenceless

the power availability today was pretty bad.
sunday. carpenters working at home.
trying to ignore the nail banging and sawing noises, i tried to drown myself in a book [on the origins of scientology and dianetics - more on that in some later post] sitting in the balcony among some plants..

so much for the preamble for the rambling thoughts this time..

first sight that caught my attention:
this is NOT one of the pictures from the recent trip to kabini. or any other wildlife park..
these are, i guess, domesticated cows and buffaloes, that have been left free to graze - encroaching on sn unprotected [in spite of the compound wall] BDA allotted plot.

so, the next thought was about other encroachments that i could spot around me..
This one, right next to where the buffaloes grazed - has been land under dispute between BDA and some other litigants.
the last court ruling was in favor of the BDA, and soon after they had also put up some fencing.
but soon after, the fences were tampered with first.
and segments began to disappear.
then, in one corder - quite a vantage point as it is on bannerghatta road and in a fairly heavy traffic spot, a small 'nursery' sprang up, with some potted plants for sale.
over a few months the business grew and occupied more and more space to cater to the increased volume.
diversification was the next step for growth - and got into selling Terra cota pots as well as cement pots.
backward integration, for this business meant making their own cement pots which needed more space.

the picture you see above shows the 'factory' and a portion of the road behind, if you look carefully.

with connections to the local councilor - who, i was told is also the supplier of water in tankers regularly, for this business, in addition to, i can extrapolate, of protection money, a couple of attempts to dislodge this activity have been unsuccessful.

talking of fences, at kabini, i saw a private farmhouse having an electrified fence. i guess the other extreme of being selfish, after encroaching on the wildlife territory.
howard hughes and michael jackson also fell in that category.

p.s. i watched the move slumdog millionaire on TV last night. i could relate to the comments made by some segments that the movie portrays some negative aspects of our society - but my comment is that we cannot ignore that under the guise of always being only politically correct.
we have our heritage as well as the successes in the modern world, but let us not simply wish away the negative aspects that need to be fixed as well.

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