Fifty years ago when we were in school, walking on the roads was a part of the curriculum under civics. Teachers inculcated the use of keeping left, using the pavements to avoid accidents and injuries while coming and going to school. On some days, the class teacher would follow us to correct our walk. That policing by our teacher, we felt, robbed our freedom to act funny. That was when Bengaluru was not a big city with so many vehicles.
Times have changed. The water flow in the Kaveri has got reduced. Bengaluru has expanded and has become cosmopolitan. The development has robbed the city's pavements. Wherever they exist, the pavements are occupied by vendors, hawkers and others.
Many pavements have loose stones or stones removed leaving a hole, where a step without care can land you in the drain. As the pavements become unsafe, no one will try to walk on the platform. I saw many senior citizens trying to maintain their philosophy of walking on the pavements and getting injured because of the uneven pavements and potholes.
Sometimes these senior citizens argue with the hawkers on the footpaths and get rebuked by the all-powerful hawker's unions. Even policemen in that area side with the hawkers. After all, the hawker could be more useful for them than a poor senior citizen walker.
In the places where there is not much commercial activity, the pavement experience is different. Amid the traffic in Bengaluru city, pavements have now become a part of the road, leaving no scope for safe walking.
The two-wheeler drivers use the pavements to skip traffic and reach their destination quickly. This is more prominent in the evenings when they try to rush back home. The two-wheelers with all their modern high-powered bikes are doing circus feats while getting on to the pavement and while leaving the pavement and joining the main road when traffic is suited for their free drive.
The pedestrian experience in Bengaluru is horrific, with rushing two-wheelers, brushing with other walkers, sometimes hitting them and then cursing them for not walking properly on the footpath. Every time I go on to the street, I worry constantly, not only for my safety but also for my fellow senior citizens.
Whenever we meet in a group we wonder whether our teachers were right in teaching us that footpath is meant for pedestrians. It is not their fault because they were trained by the British teachers when India was under colonial rulers. Now we are independent and that is being reflected in the ways cities treat the pedestrians and footpath users.