Uphill struggle to settle into the high life
Not so rosy: High rise housing for working class communities
Lasanthi and I walked to Market Veediya where she pawned her husband Chandana’s wedding ring for Rs. 8000, and then proceeded to Sabahapura, her old watta, to spend the morning searching for a dining table for their flat.
Her friends in the watta directed us to a two-storey house where they had a table for sale. The seller was an imposing personality sporting a luxuriant moustache, a striped sarong hitched high up to his chest, and a thick gold chain glistening around his neck. He showed us an ornate dining table with carved legs, and eight chairs with crimson cushions. Lasanthi whispered to me, “Chandana will be delighted”. The man quoted Rs. 8,500 at which Lasanthi said, “Epa, epa, it’s too expensive” and strode out with me trailing behind. The man called us back and reduced the price by Rs. 500. She bought it!
The neighbourhood boys loaded the furniture in the hired van that was to take us back to the flat. We unloaded the furniture near the lift. Irrepressible Lasanthi, despite our protests, packed the lift to the brim. I took the other lift to the 14th floor and waited for them. The lift didn’t arrive. Wondering whether it was stuck, I ran downstairs. The lift doors were wide open on the 4th floor. I saw Lasanthi and the furniture carrier rushing down the corridor carrying chairs and cushions towards the other lift. I ran like crazy along the corridors to join them in the lift.
Reaching the 14th floor we deposited the furniture. I went down the stairs to bring the next load. At the 4th floor, I saw the site manager and lift operator who had been summoned to fix the lift. I ducked past them quickly, reached the Ground Floor, grabbed the rest of the chairs, and dashed towards the functioning lift. Finally, reaching the 14th floor, I helped Lasanthi set up her new dining table.
This vignette demonstrates the antics, the precarity and everyday challenges of homemaking in a high-rise life in Colombo. Previous research on housing in Colombo has involved surveys, interviews and statistical analyses. However, exploring the concept of home necessitated living on site and gaining an insider perspective of how people construct and experience home which is why I use participant observation as my research method. The drama of getting stuck in the lift, sudden water cuts, potential fire risks, sharing a 500-sq. ft flat with several families, experiencing the daily domestic conflicts, witnessing a suicidal young person trying to jump off the water tank and being saved in the nick of time, and having to stare at the grey concrete walls constituted the everyday experiences of home in the high-rise. Although watta communities had their fair share of difficult circumstances before relocation, residents in high-rises regularly felt under more surveillance and control, were more isolated and distanced from people and nature. A key factor which affected life in the flat was the lack of choice and control over their own lives and having to adhere to state regulations.
In 2019, when I rented a room in Lasanthi and Chandana’s house their house was sparsely decorated with a few plastic chairs, a cabinet, a small black and white TV, a religious shrine, two pictures of Lasanthi and Chandana, and a picture of H.R. Jothipala. They explained that with relocation into the flat, they were plunged into debt due to unexpected expenses, they encountered several crises (illness, Easter attacks) and could not ‘construct their home well’.
As time progressed, Lasanthi and Chandana started to improve their home. Chandana was from a ‘well off’, ‘high-class’ family in Victoria Street, when he fell in love with ‘Lasanthi from Market Veediya’. His father refused consent to their marriage and Chandana and Lasanthi were estranged from the family.
Despite multiple family issues, Lasanthi did her best to create a beautiful home. They lived in many houses, going from watta to watta, trying to find the perfect place. Lasanthi invested years of hard work in Dubai, Saudi and Oman to construct an ideal home, to give her son an education, to tile their bathroom, or to buy electrical goods. Each job brought her closer to creating the home she desired.
But for all her homemaking efforts, Lasanthi constantly felt rejected by her family and children. When Lasanthi and Chandana moved into the flat, they thought that their improved circumstances would mean that their family would accept them again. At the onset of my fieldwork, I remember we used to eat our meals seated on the ground, while peering up at the little black and white TV. As time went on, they bought a dining table and later a colour TV, and painted their house. These were not mere material improvements but evoked emotions and nostalgia. Lasanthi especially challenged the rejection by her relatives in her attempts to establish a ‘high-class’ home. Homemaking did not come cheap and even meant Lasanthi pawning Chandana’s wedding ring but she considered these sacrifices were not in vain, as these ‘made their house a home’.
Constructing ‘home’ was thus, a complex intermingling of different relationships, people and processes. Although the transition to the flat was intended to provide people a step up in life, home-making and home improvement was a journey of continuities and discontinuities. Increased expenses, increased distance from essential resources (hospital, transport networks, and markets) and general precarity of the life-worlds of the urban poor meant there was a limited change in their conditions. Often it was a worsening of conditions. Crises such as COVID-19 caused Lasanthi and Chandana to plunge deeper into debt, and they finally sold their valued dining table flat to pay their debts.
Homemaking for residents in Colombo’s high-rises poses many challenges. First, regeneration projects although creating material improvements, disrupt people’s lives and uprooted families and communities. This makes healthy homemaking practices very difficult.
Second, the heterogeneity of urban communities in Colombo is not sufficiently considered. Sociological factors like ethnicity, religion, gender, age and watta affiliations were not seriously assessed. Lasanthi and Chandana were a mature couple without dependents. They had no family members in the flat, Lasanthi had serious heart issues, and Chandana was employed in a cleaning company. They lacked strong support networks and had limited financial resources but these complex needs were not considered when they were relocated.
Third, there were limited consultative, people-centred processes. Consultation should not merely include householders or Samithi officials. Instead, all those involved in a home especially children, the youth, the elderly, those with disabilities, and those with different health issues should contribute to planning.
Fourth, homemaking was not considered as important in project implementation. This is evident in the lack of resources in Crystal Court. High-rise housing projects for working class communities are often very different to other high-income high-rise complexes. In Crystal Court, there were no security guards manning the lifts, there were limited recreational facilities (playgrounds, gyms, nurseries and community centres) for children, youth and elders, there was limited parking, and limited freedom for residents to determine their own built environment. There were no ramps or bars to assist residents with disabilities, fire safety measures and only a few residents knew how to respond during emergencies.
Moreover, residents had limited choice in engaging in homemaking decisions. This was different to wattas where they had more freedom to construct their homes. Infrastructural changes such as inserting safety bars on windows, erecting gates, painting the corridors or painting the house were initially restricted. There were also regulations regarding hanging up laundry and having pot plants. Therefore, better infrastructure, better resources and adequate support must be provided to residents in the post-relocation stage.
Most of the needs in the high-rises were managed by a few government officers, or police and most state officials themselves were overwhelmed by the volume of the needs. Hence, having well equipped community support centres with social workers, children and youth, counsellors and advisors for debt matters, crisis support, relationships, disaster management and conflict management is essential for large housing projects. Moreover, by absorbing ideas of homemaking aspects into government projects and plans could help residents to construct their houses into homes.
(All people and place names mentioned in this article are pseudonyms)
(Dr Avanka Fernando is attached to the Department of Sociology, University of Colombo. Her PhD in Social Anthropology was on “High life in a high rise: An ethnography of home and everyday life in a relocation housing project in Colombo, Sri Lanka”)
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