Will our cities ever allow us to go green?
I have been thinking about this question over and over again
as I walk to my College as a green initiative at least three days a week. First,
there is no road as I come out of my house, so to speak. It is gravel, sand and
stones just put together on undulating patches and the rest of what is there or
not there is in pits, literally. Patches have been dug up in the name of storm
water drainage and it has been like that for months.
This challenging stretch leads to the chaotic four-point
crossing with a narrows fifth lane pushing itself for attention.
The Chennai transport corporation buses charge menacingly,
disregarding the red light. The threatened pedestrians are then forced to
retract apologetically despite the signal post flashing green over the walk
sign.
The SUVs and Sedans along with the two- and three-wheelers complete
the chakravyuh (the circled trap), frustrating the poor pedestrians’ attempts.
And, senior citizens are in for a rude, insensitive shock as they are unable to
importune their way across the ominous crossing to reach their nationalised
banks to update their passbooks or collect their pensions.
Once I manage to go to the other side, as a person and not
as a corpse, I am forced to manoeuvre around piles of garbage, left unattended
by corporation officials. The trash strays into streets after flowing out
of unkempt bins. If I am not careful, I might just about squash a plastic bag
of smelly, discarded sambhar or assorted plastic rubbish or used poopy nappies
or even used sanitary napkins.
We want to go green. We want to walk, we want to cycle; we
want to take the public transport. We want to save fuel for the next
generation. We want to reduce ravaging our planet. We want our next generation
to breathe easy.
There is enormous temptation to take out the car to avoid
the bad roads, the disrespect of vehicles to pedestrians and cyclists and walking
on trash. We will fight that. But wouldn’t it be helpful if there was some
cooperation from corporation and the government and a little compassion and
show of concern by our motorists?
Coming back to the question: Will our cities allow us in our
green endeavour?
