Migrant Malaise

Srikar Raghavan, who recently launched his book Rama Bhima Soma, speaks of the city and its cultivated exclusion

- ANUBHAB ROY

It is in the nature of Indian cities to be more alike than not. When the shimmers and spectacles of culture are put aside, infrastructurally and socioeconomically, the Indian metropolis is a formulaic, concrete Goliath, whose living contexts stand fundamentally opposed to the Davids trying to etch a space of safety. Amongst many related vectors, Srikar Raghavan's recently released book, Rama Bhima Soma (Context; ₹595), talks about the migrant Bengali population in Whitefield, and the systemic oppression they face at the hands of corporations, to whom they exist as mere incidentals of operation at best, and collateral damage at worst.