Delhiwale: Into the empty quarter

A surreal scene in Ghaziabad reveals a vast sandy expanse, with a mix of life and decay amidst the encroaching urban development.

Only a heap of broken images where the evening sun beats. But let’s skip the introductory passage, and straight jump into our on-the-ground report. Following are the surreal scenes observed on reaching an open sprawl in a far-flung corner of the capital region.

A green plastic thaila has wrapped itself about a dead plant. (HT Photo)

This vast ground is thickly covered with sand.

Swirls of sand are rising from the ground, drifting along some distance, and then fading from view.

A green plastic thaila has wrapped itself about a dead plant—see photo.

A flock of sheep are being herded by a man in a huge red turban.

A mangy dog is lying exhausted, silent but eyes wide open.

Earth has been dug up at various places across the ground; the dug-up earth is gathered into small mounds.

A lone man is leaning against his bicycle, still as a statue.

A bull is plopped down beside a cart half-filled with bricks. No one else is around the cart.

A hakeem’s modest makeshift camp has a cloth banner flapping noisily in the breeze. The printed banner claims to cure a range of venereal diseases, assuring that “naujwan bhai (young brothers) must not feel mayoos (disappointed).”

The horizon is flanked by a hazy view of multistoried towers, amidst which a temple’s shikhar is distinguishable.

This expanse in zila Ghaziabad evokes Rub’ al Khali, the empty quarter of the Arabian desert. The open ground lies in an outer part of our ever-expanding megapolis where the precious real estate has lately been subjugated by scores of apartment complexes, shopping malls, corporate hospitals, restaurants, bakeries, banks, beauty parlours, gyms and metro stations—so much so that this piece of suburbia has become a self-contained city centre. Even so, sudden pockets of gaping vacancy, like this sprawl, pop up here and there in the area’s increasingly congested topography.

Until a few years ago, the region used to be full of hyperlocal Rub’ al Khalis, punctuated by only an occasional housing tower. A similar slice of vacant field, in fact, existed across the road from these empty acres. It was often claimed by the neighbourhood cricketers. This evening, a multi-storey condo stands on the field; it is the area’s tallest tower.