Leila

by Prayaag Akbar

Once a community had control its society revived laws written by colony builders a hundred years ago, ensuring land could not be sold to those who did not belong.

Land developers saw the waiting bounty and flushed the Council with funds. Real estate listings became like matrimonials: Brahmins-only, Yadavs-only, Thakurs-, Iyers-, Parsis-only. You couldn’t buy or rent unless deemed fit by birth.

Every morning as I ride past I see a sprawling crystal palace, like something from a fairy tale, the early sun shimmering off the wall’s grey scales and the church steeples and the mirror plate office buildings that rise like uneven turrets.