I visited my first "gated community" today as Belaku Trust were holding a sale in a gated community in the outskirts of Bangalore. I have to admit, my knowledge and information on "gated communties" was limited before I arrived in Bangalore so today I looked up what a "gated community" actually means. Here is the Wikipedia definition:
a gated community is a form of residential community sometimes characterised by a closed perimeter of walls and fences, but always containing controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles. Gated communities usually consist of small residential streets and include various amenities.
In Bangalore there are a number of gated communities, housing ex-pats and rich Indians. They are funny, unusual, amazing, unbelieveable and scary places. The gated community I visited was called Palm Meadows and when I arrived (in my colleague and friend Asha's car) we were kindly told to wait while the guards checked if we were "allowed" to enter! Asha commented to me that she "assumed" that I would be her ticket in with my white skin!!! Fortunately for all those people that stay in gated communities the security guards were strict and checked with our hosts that we were "invited". After 5 mins we were allowed in!
I'm sorry if my usage of "" is annoying you but this way of life exists in inverted commas for me!! I do not understand it and I cannot fathom why people would want to live their lives in an enclosed barbed-wire fence community!!
The first thing I noticed when we passed through the gates was the perfect pavements and roads. Bangalore pavements generally have potholes, exposed manholes, stray dogs and cowshit so this community was like walking into Little America! The streets were lined with palm trees and all the houses had perfectly tended gardens. Within the gates was a bank, organic shop, grocery shop, club-house and sports facilities.
I arrived at the house where we was holding the sale and was struck by how perfectly nice but incredibly fake this experience of India must be. One of the things I love about living in India is the people, everyday I walk out of the flat there are people around, when I get a rick I deal with and talk to people here and Indian people are fantastic. There is a sense of happiness here even though there are an incredible number of people below the poverty line. Everyone has something to smile about. My impression of this gated community was that rich people (mostly white and mostly ex-pats) were hiding themselves away behind barbed wire fences.
My experiences during the sale was that I didn't fit it. I observed from my seat in the corner where I was selling things while the ladies mulled around the coffee and food. From time to time I overheard someone say "that is the charity girl over there selling things for charity"!! The women were very nice when speaking to me, asking about Belaku Trust and expressing an interest but the precedent was set ... I was an "outsider" to this community. I didn't work for the right company, my husband (sorry Kay!) doesn't work for the right company and I didn't live there!
There are so many things that I want to say about gated communities and how I perceive them. In some ways I would like someone from within these communities to show me some other side to what they are experiencing in India. So far I'm filled with negative vibes towards this type of ex-pat as I struggle to understand why they exist as they do. I would love to spend an afternoon with the maids/drivers/gardeners to see how they feel about their employers.
When we left, I was relieved and happy to get back to my lovely flat in the middle of Indirangar and see my local shop keeper, who always smiles at me. Give me a house in a gated community and I may just try to break out!
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My brother lived in a gated community (the one that found Rodney King WAS resisting arrest and thus guilty) - and I visited, there were no sidewalks except in the community, even to try to approach it for over a mile was a crime which you would be picked up by the police...unless you were white. I asked my brother how many non-whites were living here, he thought hard and pointed out the man cleaning the pool and said he knew maids came. "Do they sleep here?" I wanted to know.
"No, they have to leave by 5:00 pm"
Before this he lived in a gated community in Sri Lanka, I think he liked it there - things were....ordered, and he was on top.
I too would like to know what those who work there think of such communities? I found your account interesting because: organic food? The world Bank, run by the US, demands the 'green revolution' using pesticides, then anglos go and a generation later want 'organic food' - it can't be that hard to find in India.
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