Também a propósito de Mumbai, quero aqui recomendar - não só aos arquitectos - um livro muito bom de Charles Correa: Housing and Urbanisation.
O livro têm projectos muito bonitos e outros nem por isso, mas o que transforma o num livro muito especial, é que é um testamento de um arquitecto (indiano) apostado em fazer a diferença.

Um livro que dá esperança.

Muito interessante são as teorias urbanísticas de Correa, que tentam enfrentar o problema da migração para as cidades indianas e, com uma atitude muito pragmática, apostam nos recursos das próprias pessoas.

Transcrevo aqui um pequeno texto:

AN URBAN MANIFESTO

"I believe in the cities of India.
Like the wheat fields of the Punjab, and the coal fields of Bihar, they are a crucial part of our national wealth.

I. They generate the skills we need for development - doctors, nurses, lawyers, administrators, engineers - not just from the great metropolii: Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and Madras, but from a hundred smaller urban centres across the country.

II. Cities are centres of hope. Too often we look at our cities from our self-centred point of view... so we see only the shortages, the failures. But for millions and millions of migrants, of landless labour, of the wretched have-nots of our system... cities are perhaps their only hope - their only gateway to a better future.

III. Cities are engines of economic growth. There is no way, either politically or morally, that we can divert rural funds to develop towns and cities. On the contrary - cities, properly managed, can generate surplus funds not only fort their own development, but to help subside the surrounding rural areas as well."