On 14th January 2022, around 100 shops were demolished. The shops occupied a square lying in between the Wimco Nagar railway station and the metro station in North Chennai. The shops were built illegally on land that was owned by ITC. ITC is a conglomerate worth more than fifty billion dollars The Indian government bought the land from ITC with the stated goal of building a subway underneath the level crossing going across the railway tracks.
More than a year has passed since the demolition, and the subway construction is yet to commence. Vendors whose shops were demolished got vague promises of relocation, but it looks unlikely that they will get anything. As the months passed, some of them started running their shops on the street.
On 3rd February 2023, I talked to Sarassu, one of the vendors who lost her shop. She had a vegetable shop. Post-demolition, her shop consisted of a wooden platform that she had set up on the street. She sat under an umbrella propped up by some stones on the ground.
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| Sarassu adjusting the umbrella above her shop |
In her shop on the street she had garlic, onions, tomatoes and small quantities of some other vegetables. She had two types of garlics -- naattu poondu with thin cloves and malai poondu with fat cloves.
Me : Which of these do you use for cooking?
Sarassu : We use nattu poondu.
Me : Is the other one also good?
Sarassu : That's also supposed to be good. When my husband was recovering in the hospital, they gave him a juice made of this garlic. It was a Siddha hospital.
Me : What happened to him?
Sarassu: He had had a stroke, his BP had shot up.
That was four years ago. He recovered. He can't do heavy work any more though.
I ask her about the effect of the shop demolition.
Sarassu : Will any good come out of talking about it?
Me : We can preserve the memory of how things were. Otherwise, in the future, no one would even know there were shops here.
Sarassu : True. I will always remember this place, wherever I go in the future. I had a shop here, and I raised my children by running the shop. They (archaeologists) dig underground to discover how kings and queens of the past lived. Like that, this place contains our story.
Even these trees are going to get chopped off, she says pointing to some trees in the square. They have put manjal-kumkumam on it. These are old trees, they must be 40-50 years old. One can't go ahead and cut off such a tree just like that. This is a peepal tree and that is a neem tree.
Peepal and neem trees -- people venerate them in weddings. Why? Because these trees are so strong and we pray that we should also imbibe such strength and longeivity in our lives. They must put manjal-kumkumam on these trees before cutting them. If they cut it off without any respect, that would invite a curse.
They are going to cut these trees to build a subway. That's also the reason why our shops were demolished.
The umbrella is tilted by a gust of wind. She gets down to adjust the stones so that both of us are under the umbrella. The sun is beating down on us. The shop that was demolished was a concrete structure with a roof.
Sarassu : I am working in the sun like this so that my children can have a better life. So that they don't have to face the struggles we face. I am doing all this so that my children can get an education. I myself can survive on very little -- I just need 1 kilo of rice in a month. Sadly, before their education is finished the shop was demolished.
Lots of police came when the shops were demolished. The first time they came, we all obstructed the bulldozers, and they had to return. The next time they came the day before Pongal in the morning, when most shopkeepers were away buying stock for pongal. At that time, they demolished everything.
We asked to be given some space, just 10 ft by 10 ft for each of the shops. Behind that wall there is so much unused land. True, it is owned by ITC. But doesn't the government have money to buy some land to relocate ur shops? So many livelihoods are being snatched away.
Even now it is not clear where exactly the subway will be located. I keep hearing We may be cleared off from this space also. What we will do then, I don't know. How to survive, how to educate the children, how to live the rest of our days, I don't know.
Empty lands adjoining the street with the demolished shops
Me : How old was the shop?
Sarassu : We had the shop since my mother-in-law's time. She came to the city from the village and started this shop. The rent for the shop started at Rs 10 and went up to Rs 3000. Seven years ago we bought the shop. We bought it for Rs 1 lakh. We borrowed the money. The loan is not yet repaid.
Me : Is it possible to get any relief from the loan repayment since the shop itself is demolished?
Sarassu : No way. How can Rs 1 Lakh be written off? We borrowed it from a private money lender. Even a bank loan is not forgiven. In the four months after the demolition I couldn't pay the installments on a loan I had taken from a government bank -- and they piled on the interest! How, then, can an individual forgive a loan? He also would have earned the money by working hard. How can I cheat him by not repaying? Every time we see him, I will be reminded about the money we owe him.
We'll somehow repay. But right we are not earning much. In the fifteen minutes you have been here, how many customers came? None. I also buy less stock (compared to what I bought when I had the shop). I have to leave the unsold stuff here on the street overnight.
I barely make enough to meet basic expenses. My son's college is in Maduravoyal. If he takes the metro there, it is Rs 40 each way.
I paid Rs 50,000 when my son joined college. I got a loan by pawning some jewellery. My daughter studied in the government school from 6th standard onwards. The private school wouldn't admit her even if we could pay, because her parents are not educated. She is now in the 12th standard. In the tenth standard, she was `Corona pass'. Everybody passed (since the exams were cancelled due to the pandemic). We have to see how she does in the twelfth standard exam. I just somehow want to see both of them through college.
We had the shop for forty years. Back then the earnings were not bad like it is now. I came here from the village after I got married. I was really ignorant back then. Now, as the children are growing up, I am worried about finances.
Me : What could you have done differently back then?
Sarassu: We could have bought a house, a land, or some gold. If we had some asset like that, we could have sold it off to pay for the children's education. But we did none of that. Instead I bought sarees. That's what I wanted back then. Now I am realizing these things.
Me: Do you own the house you live in?
Sarassu : Yes, but it is a palm-roofed house. It is in Attipattu, four train stops away from here.
It's almost lunch time, and she asks if I would like to have lunch. "I got meen kuzhambu", she says. I refuse. Then she took out some cooked pana kizhangu (palmyra sprouts) from her bag. We both eat the kizhangu. "This is very healthy, rich in iron", she says. After that, I leave.
Two months later I was in the area again, and I see her. Her shop was on two wooden platforms instead of one, and she was busy selling stuff.
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