Kashmir Watch, Jan 24
By Javaid Iqbal Bhat
There were two themes in the mind for the column. Fareed Zakaria and the Footpath. Fareed Zakaria was the first choice. He is in the league of Howard Zinn, Francis Fukuyama, Bernard Lewis and Noam Chomsky. They are the interpreters of America and Americanism before the non American mind. He has done the same in his several publications; the most recent one being the “The Post -American World.” The central thesis propounded in the book is that in the coming years and decades the world would see the ‘Rise of the Rest.’ The Rest meaning China, India Brazil and others. However it does not mean the American era is over; the depth, reach and strength of her institutions are such that it would continue to direct and navigate the “Rest.” This theme would have to wait. The second one that of the footpath, pavement or sidewalk-call it whatever you wish so long as you do not run away too far away from road-ruled over the first. No doubt it is unfashionable to write on the footpath. The idea of a footpath for an English-reading mass is raw, crude and uncooked. It is not compatible with an English page. It does not seem to fit in with the soft gaze and temperament and the refined taste of the English educated class. However to my mind better than the tempting internationalization generalization it is probably wise and practical to narrow down the ground and magnify the insignificant the infinitesimal ‘trivial’ dot, comma and the detail. The neighborhood footpath pales under the shadow of the “Post American World” but it does have the necessary ingredients to illuminate the big picture. Hence footpath favored over Fareed Zakaria.
One more cue for this choice, before I flesh out the thinning and diminishing anatomy of the footpath, is an informative incident. Once a great historian decided to write down the history of the world. No sooner did he sit down to script the first few lines than some noise came through the window. He got up and inquired about the origin of the quarrel. It turned out that there were as many versions of the origin as the number of mouths. The great historian was hit by a deep regret. He wondered if he could not find out the cause of the quarrel under the window of his room how on earth was he going to trace the origin and evolution of human civilization. More or less similar to this is our situation. Of course we have entered into an increasingly interconnected world in which the lines of division between the local and the global have blurred. Yet when the local, small and the immediate-to-life is confounding and refuses to be rationally ingested by the mind, and defeats attempts to arrive at a correct understanding then letting the brain sit on the likes of the “Post American World” can be only an escapists refuge and not a worthwhile exercise with clear, immediate and practical benefits. An unclean home can never make way for a clean understanding of the world. So here we go onto the footpath.
Imagine for a moment taking a walk down the footpath; what do you come across? You bump against bending electric poles, run into chaapripharoshs, find the bag-if you are carrying one getting stuck in one of the objects which the nearby shopkeeper has put for sale, or negotiate the open or unrepaired manholes, then there are innumerable small and big puddles which morph into dirty fish ponds as soon as the drizzle begins to come down. In such a scenario it becomes less of a footpath than an encroacher’s paradise, and a literal hell for a person who wishes to use the sidewalk for short journeys. Lest anyone wishes away the magnitude of this mess he should put himself in the feet of a blind or lame citizen for a day or two, and recreate the horror he has to undergo. Unlike in the West where footpath preservation is an article of faith and where a Stephen Hawking-in –the- wheelchair can easily move up and down the sides of the road without worrying about the blind curves, rough edges, steep slopes, holes, ditches and low tree branches here even normal healthy human beings are seen on the crowded pavements as if they are exploring the bottom of the ocean making smart tilts and bends to avoid the hits and collisions. That is one of the aspects. There are places in this paradise on earth-how much I detest associating paradise with Kashmir is known to me and my God-where the motorable road, footpath and the shop fronts mix into one undifferentiated mass. Leading to the abuse and misuse and of each one them; a Bakhtinian carnivalesque time takes shape. The foot walkers screaming at the drivers for dirtying their clothes with a generous spray of the water and mud from the puddles, the drivers calling names to the people coming in their way, the shopkeepers shrieking, as if a bird is caught by a live wire, at the foot walkers who threw down their items on the ground. The confusion is rife only because the idea of the necessity of a separate space has not yet dawned on the governing structures. That can only happen if they feel the use and importance of giving convenience to the lower and the lowest section of the society. However the sad truth is that with the growth of economy and the concentration of wealth the gap between the two is increasing. Hence footpath-consciousness, as a metaphor for a wide range of affiliated concerns, is receding into the rear of mind. There is a connected extra dimension.
Since the general conditions have improved some work has been started on the front of road widening so that they remain consistent with the rapidly growing density of traffic. Once again the footpath users have been dropped away from meaningful attention; alongside these nice roads the footpaths are either too high or too low and broken into small inconvenient segments, and at so many places without the mandatory steps for coming down or going up to catch another piece of the path.; rendering them of not much use for the common people. One part of the problem there is of the construction pattern of the houses and offices close to the roads; most of them have gates opening on them. Even that was fine if proper arrangement had been made against the footpath -encroaching walls and fences. When we note these things is there then scope for asking questions as to why people prefer to walk on the roads than on their ‘reserved space’? There should be no doubt; their space has been guzzled and mismanaged. So they enter into the traffic zone and the drivers, very often nowadays, maim and kill them. A small but clean chain is formed. Footpath, road and accident.
Footpaths have witnessed a mass execution. It is time repair their worn out and damaged faces; time to recover the charm of walking down the pavement with the family and friends without fear or hassle. Those confident steps can come only when the governing mind realizes that the pain, coarseness and inconvenience anywhere does spread to other areas of the society. No one remains walled away in calm and tranquility. The wide and spacious sidewalks can become a reality when the oft repeated good government makes way for much needed good governance; governance which comes out of the dream embrace of the big and grand and commits herself to the tiny and the trifle.
Author is Assistant Professor, Post Graduate Department of English, South Campus,University of Kashmir.E-Mail: javaid@kashmiruniversity.ac.in
Posted on 24 Jan 2010 by
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