And that view from your window will tell you all there is to tell about being a wealthy person in a poor country: the view – if not protected (read: blocked) by a lovely vertical garden wall – isn’t too good. Stepping out essentially means moving into a mobile comfortable room with four wheels, travel from Point A to Point B, with valiant attempts to overlook all the points in between that will include traffic, not quite saare-jahan-se-achha urban landscape, people, more people, then a bit more, most of whom look like they’re out of a gritty Reliance Entertainment web series with Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead role.
The problem is, no matter how retro-futuristic Art Deccan or faux Art Nouveau Mumbai your home interiors are, the outdoors is – well, there’s no other way to put it – not pretty in da city. Ergo, HNIs are spending more and more time abroad, to the point of non-residing here.
In those clean, temperate, asphalt-from-which-you-can-eat-your-pav bhaji climes, where grass can be smelt like in Netflix movies, the curtains of what lies outside one’s apartment more or less matches the carpet of what lies inside. At least if you’re loaded. And I’m not even going into what you breathe in during the brief moments you step out of Amrita Shergill Marg, no matter whether you own a Mahindra, or you own Mahindra & Mahindra.
Well, of course, there are stunning views within the undisputed territory of India (calling it ‘Bharat’ in English seems to have been a passing fad for the time being). And, of course, you have blotched, wretched neighbourhoods in First World countries that can compete with living retchyards in, say, Bardhaman town. But rich people in rich countries – and some ex-rich ones, too – live and work in places, without having to change their cultural passcodes (read: country), that have a lovely view outside their windows.
Britain, a former European country, can provide, if not a solution for us, then at least a suggestion. Civil servant and architect John Gordon Dower produced a post-war ‘Report to the Government on National Parks in England and Wales’ in 1945. This ultimately led to the designation of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) across countryside Britain.AONBs are areas that are not just quiet, tranquil, and beautiful Agatha Christie countries, but also comfortable. They have Wi-Fi, libraries, clean public eating spaces, twee houses – not concrete knockabouts, billboard jungles and bucolic piss’n’shit sites. Never mind our ‘countryside’, but our cities outside the gates of apartment buildings and colonies (heh, ironic usage that) don’t have AONBs.Our prime minister wants Big Fat Indian Weddings to take place in India. Maybe Destination India Weddings among HNIs will pick up. Maybe they won’t. But if Indian cities can put some elbow behind creating, and then maintaining, at least ASBs – Areas of Serious Beauty – at least those who can afford it, won’t have to walk about only in the outdoors of faraway places to taste everyday non-indoors, sensory pleasure.
If there is some will, and pride, to erect residential buildings for HNIs – and not just statutory buildings and cultural ripostes in the form of temples – with charming facades that make whole neighbourhoods look worth walking though, then something precious will be obtained. Great countries can’t have ugly views.
Happy New Year. Once you’re back from Florence, and start planning for Valentine’s at Harrods.
