Undoubtedly, gyms, sports centres and well-maintained public parks must be built but empty spaces must also be left so that they can be used by citizens for any purpose as they deem fit
The Dussehra ground in the neighbourhood is buzzing with activity. The atmosphere is festive with colourful lights, loud music and loads of people. The ‘Gurgaon Trade Fair’ is on. It is less about trade and more about fair. The word mela captures its essence better. There are, of course, shops that sell all kinds of everyday goods — from seconds garments to crockery to genuine Kashmiri shawls.
But the main attractions include food stalls and rides for children — the Ferris wheel, the strangely named ‘Ship of Columbus’ and the merry-go-round with space shuttle-shaped cars among others. As expected, kids love thrills and one can hear their shrieks from quite a distance.
The ground is a large open space with habitation on all sides. It is routinely used for a variety of activities. In the evenings, one would find several games of cricket going on simultaneously, for instance. The younger children are bullied to play in one of the corners; while the prime central location is usurped by adults. What is amazing is that with all these games going on, there never seems to be any confusion in anyone’s mind about which ball belongs to which game. In other parts of the ground, several people are learning how to drive a scooty. One would expect them to be teenagers but interestingly, they are mostly newly-married women.
Recently, a corner has been taken up by kabaddi — a revival which owes much to the commercial Kabaddi League. And being the largest open space around, it is also occasionally the site for political rallies as well as religious discourses.
This writer is reminded of the Central Ground near his house during his childhood. This was, once again, a large unkempt plot of land, which served simultaneously as a playground and a place to hang out among other things. Younger children would play cricket, gilli danda and even volleyball; while the older ones would just be hanging around, chatting or surreptitiously indulging in forbidden pastimes like smoking or discussing their latest love interest. The ground would also be the training site for many of my friends, who were trying to get into the Army or the police. They could be seen jogging around the perimeter to train for endurance.
And yes, it hosted the Dussehra celebrations as well as an annual mela on Raksha Bandhan. It is rare to find these kinds of spaces nowadays — spaces that are not ‘maintained’ or ‘beautified’; spaces which are not restricted and genuinely open; spaces which do not have a pre-defined purpose. Typically, these would be originally reserved for a playground, or in some cases, a school or other community buildings. However, somewhere down the line, because of bureaucratic incompetence or lack of funds, the project never gets completed. This is clear from the remains of what must have been a boundary wall at some point of time but would serve as a convenient perch for teenagers as well as a source of bricks to serve as wickets for cricket.
Of course, there are huge maidans in several cities which do serve the same purpose — the Ramlila Maidan as well as the Subhash Park near Jama Masjid in Delhi, Shivaji Park in Mumbai, the Maidan in Kolkata, the Gandhi Maidan in Patna, for instance. But normally because of their size and location, they are anonymous spaces — the neighbourhood ground on the other hand is simultaneously anonymous and intimate. And that is what makes it unique.
Instead, what is increasingly happening is the proliferation of parks and gyms. The parks are usually well-maintained, with beds of seasonal flowers, manicured grass and cobbled footpaths around the perimeter with signs all over warning people not to bring dogs or play on the grass. Occasionally one would also find a children’s corner with the usual jungle gyms, swings and slides.
Of course, these parks serve a vital purpose for very small children as well as safe places for senior citizens to meet, walk or have communal yoga classes. But they don’t allow for unstructured and unrestricted activities, the grass is typically out of bounds for cricket or sometimes even for walking. The gyms on the other hand are restricted to those who can afford to pay.
In the Dussehra ground, the crowd going to the mela is quite heterogeneous. One sees young women in their best clothes, walking excitedly behind their husbands. They are typically migrants who do odd jobs and live in the neighborhood slum. The entrance has many hawkers selling chaats, burgers, momos and the curiously named, “Famous Palwal Pasta.” One can also spot a teenaged boy and girl looking around for some dark corner to enjoy each other’s company, a forbidden activity ordinarily around these parts. And then there are the middle class families loaded with bags full of bargains they have managed to get at the stalls in the fair.
This egalitarian and democratic, almost anarchic ethos, is what is special about the neighborhood ground. It is something which cannot be achieved by making community sports centres or public gyms where even though entry might be notionally free, it is always de facto restricted. By all means, build more gyms, sports centres and well-maintained public parks but do leave empty spaces, which can be used without any predefined purpose by the citizens as they deem fit.
(The writer is professor, Department of Physics & Astrophysics, University of Delhi)