Mohallas vs. the Gated Communities.

 Most of us have grown up in  the mohallas, and now live in the modern world of gated communities. A mohalla can refer to a neighborhood, where houses share walls and people live in close proximity, with no gate or fences for privacy. The gated communities refer to the residential community living in an area bounded by walls and fences.

Mohallas  (as I saw them) were, where each household knew what the other was cooking, (just by the smell of it - shami kebab?, biryani?, aloo-paratha?), and then it made it obligatory for the other to share food. It made life more fun, as treats of awesome food, came from all sides, especially if it was some festival or a public holiday like Independence day, etc. In modern modular kitchens it is the chimney which gobbles up all the smoke/ smell of the food. It not just deprives the neighbor, but the house members also of the precious moments'of the process' of cooking. I learnt the finer points of making roti at my neighbors' house, while sitting around the tawa, gossiping in cold winter nights. Living in a mohalla is all about communal living. Everything, and not just food could be shared. From clothes, to stories about  everyone and everything. Tais, and Khalas would also help in child rearing, baby-sitting, etc.  Sometimes, all this sharing of resources also led to quarrels (on water, on children, could be anything), and onlookers enjoyed these petty fights, mostly amongst women, from their terraces, windows (for a better look) or homes.

Help is at hand for everything in a mohalla. I once had a bad accident, where I broke my leg. Before I could reach home, seeing my bloody face, my neighbors took me to the hospital, got my leg wrapped in a plaster cast, paid the doctor, while nobody from my family even knew!  

Now, everybody is working, so less people stay at home, and gated communities ensure the privacy from unknown, unwelcome elements. Of course, in a mohalla nobody had heard of a bird named 'privacy'!

In Old Delhi, often faqirs frequent for alms and charity. Everybody had their favourite faqir who would give special 'dua' if you gave him the money, and also would affectionately pat your head. Nowadays, faqirs have been replaced by lumpen drug addicts! Thus, the gates.

 In a gated community, everyone is almost middle class, nuclear families having similar social and economic status stay together (as only they can afford paying for the amenities like guards, maids, etc.). They can be quite homogenous, in terms of how they look or behave. Houses have similar designs, people look similar, mostly well dressed, share maids, share childrens' schools, but they do not share lives' as people may do in a mohalla.They live side by side, but live in sanitized environments where touching is frowned upon!

Mohallas can be homogenous or heterogenous (depending on the community like Punjabis, UP walas, etc.). People can be well-to-do, or low class, may not even have anything in common, but share lives, and stay together for the communal and social joys that it offers. Younger generation may feel living under too much scrutiny, lack of privacy and may opt out, a reason why erstwhile mohallas are breaking up, and high rise apartments coming up in their place.