Urban Landscape-A Walk Home

Depending on your perspective, you might want to call Pune a pensioners’ paradise(which it most certainly is not any longer),  the Oxford of the East( the jury is out on that one)  or the two wheeler capital of India( which is a pretty accurate description- it is perfectly acceptable  to cite the anarchic  traffic  as the reason why you were delayed for the meeting )

Runaway urbanization has resulted in an urban environment that is definitely pensioner unfriendly. The best and the not so-good educational institutes flourish cheek-by-jowl. Motor vehicles of all sizes and shapes democratically share limited road space. The green cover is fighting a losing battle with concrete. So what’s new here? We have heard this before. My point is that, we are losing in many ways and it is not easy to articulate the sense of loss.

Some months back I sold my car, the deciding rationale being that it was nearly ten years old and the family deserved something better. At the same time, a sense of idealism pulled tangentially and I decided that, for the time being, I would walk or take the bus. Three months on, there has been no cause for regret. One recent experience opened my blinkered eyes to face up to how much I have missed.

Blinkered Vision: I parked my car outside this lovely house for many years

and hadn't even noticed. The Ashoka trees outside can't be blamed for

blocking my sight

One day, I walked  from Deccan Gymkhana to my home in Kothrud. Everything about the decision went against good sense. It was late afternoon (35 degree Celsius plus), the traffic was getting thicker (the homeward exodus had begun) and, with no clear pavement to speak of, a walker had to be both stupid and brave to bear with the traffic. heat, noise and the foul air for most of the  distance (5km).

Going, Going... and soon will be gone. A huge mound of rubble outside this

partly demolished house waits to be removed. In a few months an unfamiliar,

imposing , glass and concrete structure will intimidate those who pass by

What struck me immediately- and hard- was that that very few of the familiar houses were left. They were there for many years and they imparted a sense of permanence and reassurance, the no-matter-what-I-am-there-for- you feel. Many of them barely appealed to one’s aesthetic sense; yet, their presence was so taken for granted that they are now conspicuous only by their absence. (Hey-I passed-this-house-every-day-what-happened-to-it). 

Handsome, Solid and Dignified: Who does not want to be known to possess

these qualties? More importantly, who would really notice?



Change is inevitable and we are all a part of it. The old must eventually make way for the new. I know that. But I also hope that some things don't change. (I still miss the reassuring warmth of my grandmother’s embrace).We flirt with the transitory, but yearn for permanence. Many of the houses I passed  probably  reflect the qualities of the people who first built them-qualities that we claim to value so much,yet fail to appreciate when they present themselves before us.

So, for now, I will continue to walk. The new car can wait.

This path connects Prabhat and Bhandarkar Roads. A pity

that many people don't use it- for about 400 metres one is

spared the stress and din of traffic