Ramnik, who is resigned to living permanemtly as a temporary resident in this city, is no longer troubled by the paradox that rules his life. This is the only home his family has known for over two decades and where they will continue to reside for many, many more.

It is here that Ramnik got married and raised two daughters, who are now themselves of marriageable age. His mother recalls how there were only four buildings when they moved into this 180-sq ft tenement at Magthane in June 1976 which was then considered back of the beyond.

The Chandranis original building at Null Bazaar was declared as dangerous and beyond repairs by the Maharashtra Housing and Area DevelopmentAuthority (MHADA) in 1976 and in need reconstruction. The 60-plus families residing there were therefore shunted to various transit camps pending the reconstruction, 30 of them to Magthane. ``When we moved here, the area was completely undeveloped then... there was only a forest... no proper roads and what's more, we had no electricity or water for first the few months,'' recalls Ramnik.

Today, Magthane has 1,040 transit tenements, home to one of the largest groupings of the city's nowhere people. Like the Chandranis themselves, their building at Null Bazaar is also in limbo, between being razed and rebuilt. Four storeys have been demolished while the ground floor continues to house three shops. While MHADA's Mumbai Repairs and Reconstruction Board has made no headway in over two decades, local slumlords have muscled in along with a several illegal occupants about 15 years ago.

Says Ramnik: ``We shall shift back once our building is rebuilt by MHADA. When that will happen we don't know. Frankly, we havegiven up hope. We have got used to our life here now.''

Adds G M Joshi, a co-tenant: ``There appears to be no activity regarding our building. It has not even been acquired by MHADA as the shopkeepers are paying rent to the landlord's family. The original landlord died around five years ago. He transferred the property in his daughter's name. But neither does the landlord's family nor do the tenants appear interested.''

Moreover, he explains, since the original tenants have been housed in various transit camps it is difficult to round them up to form a cooperative housing society, a precondition for tenants who want to assume ownership of a building acquired and reconstructed by MHADA.

In fact, well-acquainted with MHADA's sloth-like attitude, residents of adjacent structures at Null Bazaar prefer to repeatedly repair their buildings rather than shift into transit camps, MHADA's yawning black hole.

Eyeing the `new' laadis on his floor with suspicion, Joshi points to another quirk of fate.Following a Bombay High Court order late last year, the repair board was forced to improve the condition of its filthy tenements. The work, of course, was predictably shoddy. But Joshi pays scant attention to his new floor. Summing up the tenants' collective scorn, he says: ``MHADA is carrying out repairs now, but will they ever give our homes back? Or now, are they planning to throw us out.''

Transit camps, which became a part of Mumbai's map way back in 1971-72, have since become permanent fixtures on the cityscape. Bit the scheme has scarcely succeeded, with only 20,000-30,000 families whose buildings have been reconstructed by MHADA, returning to their original dwellings in the three decades since the board was established. In fact, every year, 10,000 families whose buildings are considered dangerous and beyond repairs continue to reside in these structures due to the dearth of transit camp accommodation.

The repair board now plans to construct multi-storey transit camps at four locations in Mumbai,as most of the camps, which are at present single-storey structures, are unable to keep pace with the requirement.

However, there is a more immediate problem. The crisis of accommodation has also been precipitated by corrupt MHADA officials who, with local dalals, illegally lease out transit tenements for hefty deposits. These unauthorised residents, in fact, occupy half the 24,000 transit tenements in the city's 53 camps even though official estimates peg the number at 2,000.

Steep real estate prices, the dearth of low-cost housing and booming population, among other things, seem to have collectively conspired to sabotage the scheme. Apart from taking away the original dwellings of thousands of Mumbaikars, they have also turned the promise of a better home into an impossible dream.