Wednesday, October 06, 2010

The Case of Dissappearing Balconies in Mumbai


Image courtesy:tripadvisor.com

Balcony is a small portion in your apartment home open to the outside world.Balcony without question had been a integral part of apartments in any high rise building in Mumbai.
It started as a small trend some 15 years ago to "take-in" this balcony to add to the living room space, a sign of the upper middle class who owned the apartments and could afford the remodelling costs.
Unfortunately what started as a novel idea has now become a norm in any new construction. Builders reason that if a balcony is constructed anyway it would be taken-in in a few years so let us do it for you. There is a catch though, the room size has actually stayed the same, only now there is no balcony to take-in!
Balcony was a place to bask in the sun after a long head bath, say hi to the neighbour across the street. It also provided a secretive place to talk to your boyfriend, sometimes take a little walk; as oasis when life became stressful.
An ever burgeoning Mumbai population combined with a sharp increase in real estate prices is taking away this little comfort zone from us.

1 Comments:

Blogger Approach Shot said...

The second last paragraph where you mention the versatile uses of the balcony really hits home. Considering how many would have a small garden of plants in there, it truly was an oasis. Nice post, brought back some fond memories.

6:42 AM  

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