Hi, I am Anuja, a 3-year-old kid. It was a sunny Sunday and my dad decided to take me for a walk to a big playground where we were going to play with Frisbee. I was too excited to explore the city and felt like my favorite cartoon character ‘Dora- the explorer’. We started to walk towards the playground, which is 20 minutes away from our house. Initially, we did not find any space to walk on the streets because it is full of cars and bikes, and very seldomly when we did find a footpath it was mostly encroached by vehicles. I felt uneasy because of those giant wheels and the foul smelled cloud they produce, which makes me feel sick; but I wanted to play Frisbee with my dad in that playground so we continued to walk on the unwelcoming street.

After walking a little, we found a clear footpath but it was discontinuous and raised to almost half of my height, due to which we ended up walking on the street again. I could feel my dad was uneasy and tightened his grip on my hand everytime a vehicle approached. We reached a road junction where we had to take the right turn; I was so scared of crossing it because everywhere there were those giant black wheels moving, roaring and blowing foul smelling gas. As there was no space for us to cross safely, dad picked me up and started crossing the road showing palms to the vehicles to stop.

Alas, I feel that we should have taken our vehicle as the roads were not meant for the pedestrians like us. After crossing the scary junction, we found one clear footpath to walk which made me feel happy. It was adorned by a lane of green bushes on the sideways but all these bushes were wire fenced. I was constantly terrified of walking along it. Again, it left us no choice but to get back on the street.

After a walk that seemed to last for an eternity, we reached the park; it brought me solace from the mere fact that there were no roaring vehicles here. I played Frisbee with my dad and it was fun. After playing for a while, we both got tired and took rest by sitting on the ground. There was no bench, no shed and we kept on sweating under the sun. I saw that there were so many playing eqipments such as swings, slides, and climbing rope but most were broken. The area lacks shaded spaces under the trees and resemble a decrepit desert zone, with the slides and swing poles standing out like cacti.

We hurdled on the city roads to reach this park and there was not anything for me to play with!

My dad often tells me about his childhood memory when there weren't such developments but it was so much fun when he used to climb on the trees, and play football and cricket with his friends. He used to visit this same ground during his childhood and at that time, the playground was unorganized but much more welcoming to children. He also learned to bicycle by riding on the same road that we struggled to even walk upon. Now, the situation is so bad that it is hard to come even by walking. Finally, we came back to the house by a taxi because it’s enough sprints for the day.

This whole journey was full of hurdles and difficulty. Due to this cyclical event, I will never go for a walk again. The current condition of the infrastructure discourages me to go for the playground again, staying back at my house, and letting only Dora explore the city.

About the Author

Nishant Tonk is an Architect & Urban manager who is currently a fellow under India smart city fellowship of MOHUA. He has been a short but integral part of ITCN capacity building programme, NIUA.