Walls

Something there is that doesn't love a wall
   — Robert Frost, "Mending Wall"

But in India, everyone loves a wall -- and not the low crumbling wall of Frost's poem, but high brick-and-cement walls that hide everything behind them and block both views and passage.

Over the last four months, additional walls have appeared in our "society" (neighborhood). Walking into town has now become less convenient, as the best route is now blocked by an 8-foot high wall.

Good fences make good neighbors is the other famous line from that poem. One fragment seems particularly relevant to India:

Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.

In India, walling out is the dominant mode. No offence given or taken. Certainly cows are walled out, as opposed to walled in. Inside the wall is a sense of privacy and comfort, at the expense of viewing the outside world. Fortunately, our bungalow has an iron fence rather than a full wall. But that is the exception.

In the photo above, the new wall is in the foreground. It makes a dead-end out of what was once a difficult-to-traverse, but open, road. The middle section was completed earlier this year, and the left-most segment appeared while we were gone in December. The biggest rationale is that the road you see is the service road along NH8 -- the busiest highway in India, connecting Mumbai and Delhi. (Think "I-95".)

Just before I left in early April, the wall in the photo below was built across another access road into our society (photo below). The building on the left has been under construction for at least 2 years, and this access point was blocked by construction materials, construction worker living quarters, and a large ditch. It was passable on foot, but not by vehicle. With the completion of the exterior of the building, the road was improved, and became vehicle-ready. So I guess that's why the wall went up.

At least this wall has a pedestrian access point. I think that's because the owners of the hospital whose parking lot this accesses, live in our society.

(And in case you're wondering, there is one remaining access road into our society, but it has been turned into a "cul-de-sac" rather than having through-access.)