Have we ever observed things around us carefully??? Daily routine that we follow ,like regular monotonous patterns, we end up missing innumerable details. Our Way of looking at things sometimes follows such amazingly routine patterns of thinking, that we don’t even think of thinking other wise.
Every morning we have this Sabzi wala coming at our gate. And Every morning his wonderful musical voice SCREAMING “ Sabzi Waalo”........... leaves me with no other option but to GET UP...as if its the last day of his life & he is fulfilling his last wish of desperately selling his VEGGIES...
I never thought them to be so important unless we , in our course had a class on SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT IN CITIES yesterday , i realised its the OTHER WAY ROUND .
As a routine , even that day i was compelled to wake up by this CHALTA FIRTA ALARM...I was brushing....he was screaming....i went for a bath...he was still screaming....finally after a LONG PERIOD of one and half hours i left my home.....he was still the same...same place...same tone of screaming...same position...and ofcourse with same electrifying VOICE...
Though it wasn’t a new scene for me...i was observing the engagement of his self with the work , as he was surrounded by tonnes of WOMEN who were worse in their voice pitches than what i thought the sabzi wala was...i just gave a sympathetic look & left for my routine...
We gathered in our class....and began with our discussion with our faculty..on SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT in CITIES today. All the good things...rather bad things in the sky were discussed...the GHG Emissions, The fuel Consumption, Air pollution...cars, buses, railways, LIFESTYLES OF PEOPLE, CITIEs & CONSUMPTION OF RESOURCES , CITIES & their problems....
Suddenly i realised what are we talking about...it reminded me of the
HAWKER - The WAKE UP ALARM of my MORNINGS
and realised my God we simply do not look at things the way they are...and try to beat around the bush for no reason....all that we were talking about sustainable Transport.....less use of vehicles....what could be a better example that this? NO consumption of resources..no EMISSIONS.....NON MOTOSRISED SERVICE at your door step.....He is not a nuisance but its THE OTHER WAY ROUND...we are a problem for him...eating up his place of hawking for our parking requirements....flaunting our cash wealth by driving to RELIANCE FRESH just to avoid walking down the markets close by....and taking over his bread butter....i realised the way we look at things need to be dramatically change to solve many problems...and they would appear to us differently....may be they would no more appear to us as a problem...!!!
I think thing what u highlighted is very remarkable... and planner with white hairs and called experienced and masters of all these, who are doing all these stuffs, have to memorised their past how they live, and in today's time what kind of change require?!? I rememberd my 9th sem - It was about urban designing and public experience.. I raised the same point in discussion and also in my design i specially include spaces for informal activities.. I remember lot of places having full of places where informal activities are there.. for example - IIM foot path, or near neahrunagar bust stop ot at dhal garval.. Many time i went there wid my friends and had cup of tea.. I always love to be there, with some free informal environment, out of routin life and feels like free.. thats what the place have power and thats what we have to preserve.. and thats why i like what you are pointing at..
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