During my recent visit to Pune, I found myself in a city whose urban structure had completely changed. When I passed under the huge metro pillars spread over several kilometres, their shadows were falling on the cars crawling below. Amidst the suffocating traffic, I asked my friend, ‘What happened to the people who used to live here earlier?’ Cold drink vendors, coconut water vendors and fruit stall vendors – who used to stand here before these pillars?’ The friend said that ‘for the development of a city, old things have to be removed.’ From a purely economic point of view he was right. Pune Municipal Corporation has found a profitable and new source of earning. He has earned more than Rs 3.4 crore in two years from the advertisements placed on these pillars. This earning increased continuously between October 2024 and March 2026. This is expected to increase further as the metro expands. Yet, when the Municipal Corporation is increasing the fees year after year, one cannot help but wonder what the real cost of this ‘progress’ is. This change reminds me of Nagpur. 50 years ago Pune and Nagpur were known for bicycles. Bicycles are rarely seen today. Many years later, when I returned to Sitabardi, Nagpur, I immediately searched for the puncture dealer who used to sit in a corner. The person with me did not know where he had gone. He said that now there are very few bicycles left to run this business. I asked about old flour mills and the tinsmiths who converted oil cans into kitchen storage. But the answer was the same, ‘Who grinds grains himself now?’ or ‘The methods of storage have changed long ago.’ With a strong resolve in my mind, I searched for two days and finally found the old punctured one. He was living in a small hut with his family. I thanked him for keeping my bicycle in good condition at very low cost during my school days. He cried when I put some money in his pocket in exchange for those many free repairs. While returning to the street, I realized that the brightness that used to be there had now disappeared. If you have not met that old lady selling ‘Ber’ outside your school, who used to give boiled ‘Ber’ with salt for a few coins, then seek her out once. Meet them. Not that, but you will feel better. This is the lack I felt in Mumbai this weekend. The ‘Gajra wali’ lady who sold snacks and flowers at the end of my street was missing. I was told that they had to stop work due to rising prices of LPG. A milkman sits on this road every morning for the last twenty-five years. Even during strikes, floods or storms, he never moved an inch from there. Sometimes, when he did not come, not only his customers but also every passerby passing by would ask, ‘What happened to the milkman today?’ The things that catch our attention are never temporary ads or new infrastructure. It is the absence of the small businesses that saw us grow. These people are not just shopkeepers, but they are well-known faces who maintain the economic-social pace of the city. Modern income streams can finance construction work, but if these small businesses close, they may never revitalize the community. The bottom line is that true progress is not measured merely by infrastructure and advertising revenue. We must ensure that modern growth does not destroy the small and simple businesses that are the heartbeat of a city.
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N. Raghuraman’s Column: Modern methods of earning cannot revive old and small businesses
