Prof. Dr. Rameeza.A.Rasheed
Ever since, the Chennai Corporation had upgraded several of
the Chennai parks, created new ones and maintains them fairly, the Chennai
civil society has enthusiastically
developed walking habit as an effective exercise suitable for all age groups.
My doctor always
advises me not to give up regular walking exercise. Though I have been
following his advice all these years sincerely, a very bad fall resulting in
knee injury had put a stop to my walking exercise. Yet, I go to the nearby park
on alternative days in the evenings with a different purpose i.e., for “park
watch”. This newly developed interest gives me mental peace and relaxes my mind
immensely due to the movement of different types and ages of people around me
with their various activities. I imagine
that, the properly maintained grass
patches, plants with colorful leaves and flowers , the humming butter flies ,
the huge age old trees , chirping of birds hurrying to their nests in groups , the cool air around , the gentle
noise of water flow in the fountains , the light music played through a
speaker in mild volume etc., are all extending me a warm welcome when I enter
the park . The park scenario gives me peace of mind and cool my nerves heated
up all through the day through the headlines of the print media and every
minutes breaking news of the electronic
media covering mostly, all the unhappy incidents happening in our nation.
First, I get seated near the walking area. I watch
obese middle aged men and women walking vigorously and profusely sweating with
a hope of achieving their target in weight control, elderly people walking slowly but, steadily
to control geriatric problems, youngsters jogging to keep fit and the disabled
elderly couples walking very slowly supporting each other by holding their
hands conveying the companionship they enjoy in their sun set years. Every park
is now filled with health conscious people except some pairs of lazy love birds
who monopolise the stone benches with least compassion for the very elderly men
and women who want to relax for some time chit chatting with familiar co walkers.
Then I move to the place where yoga is taught and skating is
practiced by children. I listen to the lecture given by the yoga master
regarding the advantages of each yoga pasture and register in my mind and practice
them after I go home. The breathing techniques the park goers learn might be
helping lot of people.
Then, I go to my final
destination, the play area. Here, some men are seated in the other benches and
only through their loud talk I understood that, men also see television serials
and indulge with interest gossiping about colleagues and neighbors. When women
do it, that is called “back biting” when men do it, that is a “cultural discussion.”
I see in this area, that, the children are escorted by young
mothers, or grand mother or father or house maids play happily using all the
play things fitted there. There is always a greater demand for the swings. When
the children use gliders the escorts go near them and watch them and warn them
to be slow. Boys in the age group of 7-9 run freely around the parks and play
hide seek happily and tirelessly. But alas! That freedom is not allowed for the
girl children however, they pester their escorts to allow them to play all
games the boys are playing. They are not even allowed to go on their own to buy
ice cream from the vendor selling it outside the gates of the parks. They hold
their hands tightly and take them out to get ice cream. This type of denial of
freedom to the girls used to irritate me since, too much of gender equality of
ideas are embedded in my mind. Are we in Stone Age or what I used to think?
But, now I regret for
such thoughts since, we read everyday news on sexual assault of girl children.
Now I understand the families’ concern about their safety. Primarily the girls should be alive and live with dignity to
enjoy freedom. Safety of the
daughters is the priority now. In a
nation where neither the relatives within homes, nor the neighboring men, teachers in schools, vehicle drivers , preachers,
religious gurus, and all types of service providers cannot be
trusted with safety of girls what else the parents can do? Has
not the collective consciousness of the Chennai citizens shaken by the gruesome
and prolonged sexual assault on a hearing impaired young girl by 18 men? I even
wonder whether animals have such behavior. When India is announced as an unsafe nation for women by other agencies or nations
we get angry. Do we have the right to
get angry?
My younger days in a
village were not like this. We used to roam near ponds , temple tanks , mango groves , go
alone to shops and play in the streets until sun set . Schools and public
places were safe and our service providers used to take good care of us when we
have to go out of homes for various reasons. What a transformation from that
India to this India?
With these thoughts I
return home and hope, the next day, I will be filled with pleasant observations
during my “park watch programme”.
