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Fact Sheet (excerpt)
(The city of Mumbai has been developing rapidly. Due to scarcity of land on the island city, the city has grown along a north south axis with all the businesses located in the south of Bombay and the residential quarters in the north. There is thus a torrent of people traveling to south for work in the morning and back home again to the north in the evening. The western railway suburban service ferries about 3 million people everyday on approximately 961 trains.
The commuters are packed tighter than sardines in a can. The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation has been installing additional lines to ease the over crowding. The phase one due to be complete in the next 1 or 2 years will see the addition of 93 km of tracks and an addition of 101 new 9-car rakes The second phase to be completed in the following 4 to 6 years will decrease the overcrowding from the present 5000 commuters / train to 3000 / train.)
• UNICELL will design attachments ( C ommuter A ttachment S ystems) in order to ease the inconvenience the commuters have to bear with till the additional lines are constructed.
E.g. folding tables for playing cards while commuting in the rush hour, foothold accessory for hanging by the door, 4½” accessory seat to accommodate the fourth commuter on a three seater.
• An instructional video will also be made to explain the working of these attachments.
• Maneuvering one-self while traveling in the local train is of ultimate importance to be able to embark/disembark at the desired station. ‘Locomotion'-a portfolio of diagrammatic drawings, with an easy to follow Locomotion Course (images) and learner's video elucidating the choreography will be made.
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(The city of Mumbai has 300,000 street vendors, and the Bombay High Court order demarcating the hawking zones can accommodate only 17,000 making the remaining 283,000 illegal. The Municipality and the police department conduct periodical raids to evict the vendors.
The vendors and the officials have an unofficial ‘arrangement' that makes events easier for them. By this ‘arrangement' they get a tip off before the raids. Since otherwise when the BMC and the police conduct their ‘surprise raids', the vendors have to disperse in a moment with all their goods on their person- or else the goods have to be confiscated and then destroyed ie if not retrieved by the hawker. But retrieving them is an arduous task involving phenomenal fines and red-tape – i.e. extra effort and exertion for both the parties involved.)
• UNICELL will develop vending tables/ carts that fold up and morph on the spot with the surrounding. E.g. Coupon validating machines, post boxes etc OR objects that belong to a certain section of the society that is acceptable and up to the standards of the planned makeover of the city...(product sample no.1: Shanghai Couch) so as to reduce the workload of the municipal staff and stress for the street vendors.
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UNICELL will undertake construction of various buildings/structures from time to time. These structures will be for housing departments that UNICELL may feel are lacking in the state machinery. Since these will have to be eventually pulled down by the Municipal Corporation, these will be made with low cost materials such as cardboard, cloth, paper etc.
An Exposition by UNICELL International Department of Monuments and Edifices
(12th Jan to 31st Jan 2008 at the Chemould Prescott Gallery)
Reconciliation and Truth (images)
Monuments, official edifices and memorials serve as reminders of history and memory. They function as receptacles of the ethos of a people. Even if the histories are brutal or tyrannical, the commemorative/ official edifices constitute a stockpile for future generations...
“Razing of monuments and icons of the past is good proof to show that democracy is working- people are taking charge.…By felling the monument / icon the mobs give the powers that be, a mandate to continue in their tenure/ occupancy.”
Chief Executive Officer, UNICELL
A survey conducted by UNICELL has proved that too much time, energy and finances have to be spent to maintain them (The cost of maintaining the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat New Delhi is Rs. 40 million per year). Or then the redressal of such events in case of interventions by the truth and reconciliation commissions leads up to phenomenal costs. (The Liberhan Commission which was constituted for the inquiry into the demolition of the Babri Mosque has till date cost the state exchequer Rs.7.20 million.)
Such edifices and icons of the past thus have not much use other than for venting public ire. So as to do away with this violent temptation it is recommended by UNICELL that all the future monuments should be created as debris.It is necessary that these monuments be unidentifiable as belonging to any particular people so as to avoid despoliation.
For this it is recommended that:
• These are installed in a special zone that is neutral and unidentifiable as belonging to any particular peoples. This could be situated on some island or in a desert.
• These fragments should further be grafted/ attached to each other thus creating one continuous unidentifiable mega monument.
• These could have file names that specify the dedications but the actual fragment-monuments should be untitled.
UNICELL has formed a central administrative body
‘International Department for Monuments and Edifices'. (Recognition from the respective offices pending)
No country/ state should build any monuments on their own.
All proposals along with funds to be submitted to this department which will then employ its team of artists and architects to design and execute the projects.
An Exposition Reconciliation and Truth was held from 12th to 31st Jan 2008 by the U.I.D.M.E