"EQUAL
STREETS"
Bandra, Mumbai,
23/11/2014.
Always up and
about, jog's my memory of Mumbai as a city that never sleeps. Every day with
the ever increasing traffic , roads are being cramped up. Vehicles occupying
the major portion of the road tends to squeeze the people out of the space to
cycle or walk by the hassle of vehicles.
So, the initiative
"equal streets" aims at reclaiming the streets of Mumbai for a vision
of happier and healthier Mumbai. Every Sunday the traffic congested patch is
clocked up by cyclers, skaters, musicians, street artists and other gaieties.
The activities on the street are deviant from the usual ones and being an
adjunct of the same was zestful.
Skating along
the 6.5km patch was exhilarating. I've never been able to skate so freely on
roads, taking steps anywhere and anytime I like without heed of a car speeding
me up. Nonetheless, this was unalike my days of yore, where skating on streets
would always be shlep along the jeopardy of vehicles and dogs running at my
heels and I absconding back home. Skating on preeminent streets had always been
a fantasy which turned to actuality.
A group of
musicians embracing the crowd as instrumentalist was novel. Trying hands on
instruments had always been merry-making..
Equal streets
is fling and gave everyone enough rope to use a major chunk of streets which
otherwise had been occupied by traffic thereby being able to bring off the initiative
of creating a happier, healthier, active, creative and an "Equal" Mumbai
for all.
