Imagine a road dedicated to walkers. Imagine no blaring horns, runaway buses or trucks, no speeding cars, no cycles even. Further imagine this avenue linked with gnarled old tamarind and neem trees and the occasional flowering gulmohar or flaming dhak. Imagine charming little giraffe and elephant faces holding aloft dustbins at every few hundred metres. Imagine gentle, soulful piped music playing from speakers along the stretch of the road- morning ragas, classical symphonies, instrumental beats. Imagine the road measured and marked for the dedicated jogger or walker to keep track of how much she has done, imagine pretty roadside shelters with benches for the tired ones to rest and chat a bit or do a spot of pranayam. Imagine all this in the heart of Uttar Pradesh.
Impossible to imagine yet it exists. Lucknow, erstwhile city of nawabs and now better known for its dirty politics and dead poetesses, is home to just such a road. About four or so years ago the cantonment board in Lucknow put in place this unique experiment, and each year it only grows better. A 2.5 km stretch of the Kasturba road in Lucknow Cantt is simply shut to all vehicular traffic for two-three hours every morning and evening, and reserved for the pleasure of walkers. To me, this road is poetry in concrete, an ode to the fine pursuit of walking. It is equally an ode to democracy, for walking is a form of exercise all can avail.
The Waling Plaza, as the stretch is known, is a simple and great idea, and it would be simply wonderful if more cities were to emulate it. For only a fraction of the cost of creating new parks, our bustling, overcrowded cities can have green lungs for citizens to breathe fresh air in.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment