All things must pass
Updated On: 30 August, 2025 12:40 PM IST | Mumbai | Lindsay Pereira
The old must give way to the new, and that is the principle upon which our cities have always been built
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I was saddened by the collapse of a bridge in Gujarat a few weeks ago. There were warnings, apparently, and this wasn’t the first time something like this had occurred in what we have been told is India’s most developed state, but I couldn’t help wondering if the sadness was a little misplaced. I am aware of how callous this makes me sound, of course, so please allow me to explain.
Yes, people lost their lives, but shouldn’t we all have come to terms with that possibility by now? Isn’t it something that anyone born in India starts to accept at a fairly young age, given what we all collectively experience during childhood, irrespective of where we grow up?
It made me think of my own past and recall my early years in the suburb of Malad, where what is now referred to as a call centre hub used to be a giant landfill. I realise the word ‘landfill’ is incorrect here, because it implies a scientifically designed space for waste disposal. The more accurate term, based on what I remember, is ‘garbage dump’. Those stacks of rubbish would rise into the sky as we went past them in buses or rickshaws. The windows of every bus would be quickly closed, or handkerchiefs brought out, until we were safely past and in the vicinity of Goregaon.
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