My Park watch programme

                                                   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”.