by Dinesh Kapoor (PH-1/1203, 9810020179)
1997
Those were times when farmhouse living was a dream that people living in NCR were frantically pursuing. Equally ferociously,
the property dealers, builders and colonizers were selling them their dreams. People were willingly suspending their disbelief and trusted these conmen in disguise who assured these gullible people that they could live in large farmland with a built-in cottage and enjoy nature in all its freshness, sunrises and sundowns. For this, they would rent plush offices in posh South Delhi colonies and hire air-conditioned shuttles to showcase their dubious farmlands.
It was a grand show and I was one of the vulnerable ones who used to go frequently to see my promised land in River Breeze farms 7 kilometres from where the cremation ground stands today when you are coming from Delhi. The shuttle used to pass from beside Wishtown. Only at that time, our Wishtown did not exist. It was not visible from the dusty and jerky road which is well paved now, besides the Pushta.
I remember it was a ride full of speed breakers caused by protruding pipes carrying water to farmer’s fields. The colonizers used shuttles with high floors and the driver was tutored to take you there with the least bumps. Buyers were too busy sitting in the shuttle to notice the hurdles in transportation. It was like going to a picnic with friends.
When I started driving to ‘my farm’, I discovered the breakers; one of them nearly broke the axles of my car. That is when I would lock sideways. Starting from the crematorium and the Shiva temple, there would be Amity on my left and only a few buildings on the way were under construction. Otherwise, it was a plain lad as far as you could see. My worker on the farm would often walk over the Pushta to go to Bhangel where he lived. Today it is complicated to cross over. Either time there was always a method in the madness.
I could not retain my farmland, now with a cottage in it because it belonged to the Air Force and the colonizers had left hook, ship and sinker. And the authorities uprooted everything I had built on it. Of course, it never occurred to me that just beside where I was stranded due to my damaged axles for hours, where I was going to live in a dream apartment 20 years later. A lot of water has flown under the bridge since then.
