By Raj Lakshmi Dube
This is based on a real life incident.
Sunita was returning to Dehradoon, in the state of Uttarakhand, INDIA, after a gap of almost 20 years. She intended to spend the evening years of her life in the place where she grew up, studied and married. After marriage she had accompanied her husband abroad and did not get time to return to her country. She was busy with children and household chores. Now the children were well settled and she had discharged her responsibilities. Having lost her husband, she decided to return to her roots to heal and spend the rest of her life with her childhood friends with whom she was still in touch. Having said good byes and with a lot of hugs and instructions from her children and grandkids she boarded the flight to New Delhi, from where after a layover she had to board the flight to Doon. After 40 minutes the flight landed at Doon Airport.
The first impression was “Is it really doon airport? hope I have not landed elsewhere. In old age people do make mistakes, but then, no no the airport staff had checked my boarding pass. But how is it so vast, it used to be a rather small airport where after landing we could walk from the aircraft to the entry gate pick up the baggage from the only baggage belt and crossing the terminal come out of the airport. Never mind some development has taken place, time doesn’t stand still”. Exiting the airport, she called for her Uber cab which had been booked by her friend and the number and name forwarded to her. She settled down in the cab after the driver helped her to stow her bags. She was very excited see her old city. She remembered the lush green forest on both sides of the road, which seemed to be the same as was earlier. After about 20 minutes, she thought what is this? so much traffic on the road, where did so many vehicles come from? Another few minutes and the cab started crawling it could barely move due to traffic. Every few meters there were small mounds of trash on both sides of the road. A strong gust of wind they would blow over the entire road.
Sunita wanted to see the old land marks, but where were they? the trees under whose shade she and her friends used to stop their bikes and take a swig of water or share their goodies or criticize the teacher who had scolded any one of them. The tree was not there no matter how much she tried to look for it she could not find it probably been cut down. Her eyes filled with tears. Another few minutes the cab reached the clock tower, thank god it was still there, but the clock had stopped, the driver told her that it had been replaced but thieves had stolen all the copper parts of the clock. This never happened when she was living here, there were hardly any thefts, Doon was considered a safe city. Further up she came to School for the Blind after which the city rush used to end. But what was this in place of the serene and broad road? there were malls in place of vacant lands and a few bungalows, her tears now flowed freely, sobbing she thought “what have they done to the city in the name of development”? She then noticed small pillars on both sides of the road on the walk ways, and the cars were parked on the roadside. After arriving at her friend’s house She asked her friend why they were fixed there and what is the purpose? Her friend had no answer. When I met her the next day even I had to plead ignorance.
Most of us citizens also do not know the purpose of these so called pillars. If they were installed for the safety of the pedestrians the intention is totally lost as some of them are so close the roadside trees that the walkers, in any case, have to walk behind them. Or if the sole purpose is to restrict parking of vehicles then too it is a disaster. The vehicles have to park on the road side which results in narrowing the roads. More vehicles and narrower roads will automatically result in traffic jams. Add to this is the rush to Mussorie on every week end from the neighboring states. Did nobody apply their minds before taking such a disastrous decision? Why could the paved walk ways not be made behind the trees and leave space for the cars to park. Just a little raised walkway would have sufficed. Where was the need to put up such horrendous structures? Or was there some sinister motive behind this squandering away of public money?
Sunita did not want to spend the rest of her life reminiscing her old doon and crying. She had seen enough massacre of the city. Disillusioned, she decided to return to her children abroad.
Raj Lakshmi Dube
Can be contacted at
Rajlakshmi.dube@gmail.com
